TO BE OR NOT TO BE
by Nexus Humanis
Summary: Season 8, completely AU from Whedons own.Destiny has given Buffy a years break, but now a new prophecy lands the scoobies in the middle of events that will have them longing for the old times, when the baddies just wanted to conquer the earth.In progress.
1. Chapter 1

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

By Nexus Humanis

Prologue

The prophet ran through the woods. He could hear his pursuers behind him, shouting directions to each other. Dark, booming demon voices calling out in an unknown language. He realized he had no real hope of escape, not with the gaping gash on his belly haemeraging and draining him of strength, and not with the fact that the demons could see very well in the dark, while he just fled blindly, with no particular goal. He could not die, not with what was inside his head. Someone had to be told. Someone, anyone.

Then it was like lightning struck, and he fell to the ground in a world of agony. As soon as he could see anything again, he discovered a hulking shape standing over him. Against the starlit sky he could see bulging arms lift a heavy axe, ready to split his head in two, obliterating the priceless treasure hidden in his head forever, and possibly dooming the world. He sought his despair for more energy, and somehow found the strength to start kicking and clawing his way backwards through the forest. But to no avail, the demon only needed one step to keep up with him. The prophet faced his defeat, and prepared to die, knowing that at least he would not have to be around to experience what was going to happen to the world.

Then, another flash of light, a loud crackle, and a feeling like a discharge of power near him. The demon with the big axe was lifted from the ground and thrown brutally several feet backwards, and smashing into a tree with a sickening sound of flesh and bones disintegrating. Then he could see shapes around him, human shapes. One of them seemed to have engaged another demon in hand to hand combat, a small slender form hammering with unproportional power into the much larger fiend, driving it backwards while expertly dodging its brutal blows. Another one, a man, let go of another one of the lightbolts, taking out a third demon by ramming it on to an extending branch on a fallen tree. He felt someone lay their arms around him, and lifting him to a sitting position, holding him and stabilizing him. A loud crunch anounced the demise of the second demon, as the person attacking with bare hands twisted its neck like a twig. But more attackers came, and another form joined the ruckus, also this a smallish female form, attacking with no weapons but hands and feet. The moon had peeked down through the foliage, and he could see that the two combateers were women, a young girl, and a grown, though not yet middleaged woman. "Slayers", he thought. So, it was true, there were more than one slayer these days.

There were no more magic discharges, the warlock must have run out of juice to cast such powerful spells that had created the lightbolts. But nevertheless, after just a short while, the fight ran out of sides, leaving just the two women standing among broken demon bodies. The prophet turned his head to see who was holding him, and found it to be a black man, elderly, but yet he could feel that it was not a feeble body that held him.

"Did we make it in time"? asked the warlock. " Im not sure" replied the black man, speaking english with what to the prophet seemed like a very strange accent. " He has a serious wound in his belly, and he has lost much blood." The prophet knew the answer, he could feel his life starting to leave him. He tried to speak, to bring on his secret, but his voice would not carry his message. "No!" he thought. "Not this!Not when people have come!" Bitterness and anger flooded him, so close, and yet to late.

The women had come closer, and his eyes met those of the elder of them. His inner sight looked into them, as it inadvertently did with everyone, and he froze. This was no slayer! This was something else, something much more! She was beautiful, and she was human, yet not human at all. What was this? What was this creature? She spoke. "He will not make it, there is little time left." "Miriam, you must do that thing of yours, and quickly!" Another person appeared, blocking the woman from his view. This also a woman, who huddled down in front of him and took his head in her hands and held it. The prophet looked into her eyes as well, and froze in shock, and then enormous relief. In those eyes he saw prophecy. Not one, or maybe two, but many. There were thousands of them, and thousands more. A Sekiraghi, a prophecy vault, was still walking the earth, and had come to him. She looked at him, and smiled gently. He wanted to tell her the joy of seeing her, but broke out in a brutal cough that sprayed blood out of his mouth. "Don't try to speak" she told him. "Just give me what you have inside" He felt her then, her mind touching his, calm and waiting. And he opened up his own, and gave it to her. He could feel it flow into her, could sense her absorbing it, picking up pieces of it and mentally tagging them, to ease future reference. And at the same time, he got a glimpse of what was already there, and he was in awe. He saw ancient prophesies of events long come to pass, and he saw predictions of unknown worlds. He saw those who had never been fulfilled for some reason, and those who would not be in the future. He saw the revelation of John, of Isaiah and of other, forgotten and famous prophets.

It did not take long. As prophesies went, his was not a big one. More like a leaflet among encyclopaedia. But he doubted that there were many among them to rival it in importance. A tiny vision, but with implications that he felt could decide the fate of the world. He did not know how, but he felt it in his bones. Plus, his very precence gave witness to it, his sanity. He was here, still coherent and sane, handing over a complete and intelligible prophecy that spoke of the veiled one.

Then, suddenly, it was done. He had made it, and he could welcome death with a peaceful mind. He had not asked to be a prophet, but when prophecy visited itself upon him, he had accepted it, let it come.

His work was done.

The last thing he heard before darkness overcame him, was the voice of the womanthing, saying; "Say, Henry! Now we have it, what the hell are we going to do with it?

The mother weeps. One of her children has been lost, dead, at the hands of the undead. It is not the first time she cries, and she knows it will not be the last. Yet she knows, that had she been given the choise again, even had she known what she took upon herself, she would have done the same. Her guardians look helplessly at her. Her lover, and the veiled one. They can do nothing, say nothing. There is no escaping the grief that befalls her when a girl is destroyed. Neither does the mother wish to escape. She must feel all the grief, and all the sorrow, every inch of the way, or her mission has failed. The mother does not despair. She bends, but does not break.

Such is the way of motherhood.

CHAPTER 1

The slayer watched from the shadows, as the young woman walked arm in arm with the vampire down the deserted street. They were talking low, the woman looking adoredly at the fiend, not knowing what she was getting herself into. If no one did anything, she would likely be dead withing minutes. Well, someone was about to do something. She gripped her wooden stake, and prepared to pounce.

Buffy looked around, there was no one there. She was going to ask this particular vamp a few questions. How the hell did they know she was in town? She wanted to know. She had not in any way announced her precense, yet she had heard someone tell the vampire and his companions to "get rid of the Summers woman". Not "the slayer", or "that slayer", she was identified by name. Had she been followed, monitored in some way? Was someone tracking her? Or had she merely walked into some sort of evil scheme, and been recognised by some unknown menace who did not dare to leave her alive? Or was it vengeance from some previous trouble?

The possibilities were numerous, and honestly, knowing was not the most important thing. Not being killed, was.

"Get rid of the Summers woman. She will not die easily, she is extremely powerful, but make sure she does, ok?" That was the order.

The vampire turned towards his intended victim, his face suddenly full of undead bumpyness. It was time.

Buffy was just about to attack, when suddenly, out of the shadows, someone else flew at the vamp, a strong kick to the torso sending him clear across the pavement and into the wall. Stunned, for just a second, she saw him get quickly to his feet, and lunge for the young girl standing in the street in combat position, stake in hand, waiting for him. She dogded his attack easily, another kick landing on his back this time, and he was thrown forwards on his face. He got up once again, attacking again, only to be picked up bodily, and tossed through the air into a light post, and Buffy heard his back splinter. The girl then rushed to him, held him down with one hand, and with the other ran the wooden stake through his chest and into his heart. The vampire exploded into dust.

The girl turned her back on the scene, and walked up to Buffy. "Are you alright"? she asked. "Uhm, ahh, yeah, I guess", Buffy replied. The situation was strange to her, "are you alright" traditionally being her line.

" Hes dead, you don't need to be afraid anymore"

"Ah, well, Im really not" said Buffy. "But, ahh, thank you, I guess, though I really had it all under control, just so…. ah, you know?

The girl looked at him and smiled. " Yeah, Im sure" "But this is sort of my job, so I figured Id lend a hand, you know."

"Ok, good. Good slayer come to save me". There would be no questioning the vamp, but it was hardly fair to blame the girl for something she obviously could not know. She had acted like a slayer should, saving the innocent from evil fiends wherever they were found.

Then Buffy saw that the girls puzzled expression.

"You….. you know about the.. the slayer?"

"Yaha, uh, yeah, sure"

"But how? But… you knew he was a vampire, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I knew".

"That, that's pretty stupid, you know, you would have been eaten alive"

"Nah.. told you I had it under control"

"Well, you know, vampires are much stronger than people, I can tell for pretty sure that you would have been in over your head."

"No, really not, you see, Im Buffy, you will have heard of me"

"Who"?

" Buffy. Surely Willow, uh, the mother, will have told you…."

"Who?, said the girl again. "I don't quite follow you""Whos Willow?"

Buffy gave a mental gasp. Willow had told her that there were slayers out there who did not, or refused to hear her when she tried to contact them. She called them "the unwilling", and had decided to use only so much time on them. There were plenty of slayers out there that did heed her, and she needed to be there, to guide them, and to coordinate them. She would speak to them, inform them, comfort them when they were scared, reassure them that they were not going crazy when she spoke to them inside their heads. But some could not accept that. Some would shut her out and never listen. It was understandable, but it made Willow sad sometimes.

So, she had an unwilling before her. One who had shut out Willows call. But still, something did not fit. She was slaying. Most of the unwilling were normal girls and women, leading normal lives, and that seemed to be the reason they closed up, visions of white-haired ladies telling them to be superheroes and fight demons of the underworld was not part of their worlds. Willow would try some times, and then leave them alone. She would not force anyone into what they did not want. So they were out there, carrying on with their lives like before.

But this was a slayer. She was strong, agile and quick, and she knew her business. She had been trained to kill vampires, for a long time.

"You, you have a watcher, don't you.

The girl looked at Buffy.

"Of course, the slayer always has a watcher".

"Yeah, of course" Buffy was picking up more about the girl. The way she acted, and talked, it was like a wind from days passed. She never said " A" slayer, to her it was "The" slayer. She did not know. She thought she was the only one. The chosen one of her generation, standing alone against the forces of the dark.

She was a mystery. How could she not know? Everybody had to know by now, that the rules had changed. Slayers all over the world had cut huge swaths through the ranks of the undead and the otherworldly menaces for over a year, keeping no secrets about their numbers. It was impossible not to know. Exept, apparently, not. A mystery, and she needed to solve it.

"Take me to your watcher, I need to see him" said Buffy.

"I, I cant do that" the slayer answered.

"Yes you can. You might not know who I am, but he surely will, if he has been with the Watchers Council"

"Ahh.. well, I suppose, it couldn't do any harm, its not like you can harm him or anything, with me and, ah.. , with me there to protect him."

" Yeah, you can… protect him… sure. "

"Well, come with me, its not very far."

" Good, lets go. Care to tell me your name?"

"Im Leila, The Vampire Slayer. Now come"

Leila led Buffy throug narrow alleys and backstreets, climbing a few walls, until they reached what appeared to be an abandoned building,

where she looked around carefully before she went down a set of stairs. They went inside, to an empty appartment. Once there, she opened a closet door, and ushered Buffy through the door. Inside, Buffy found a ladder, taking her up through a hole in the ceiling, and found herself in the hallway of a large appartement.

It was cleaner here than downstairs, the dust had been cleared away, and the lights were working.

They entered the living room, which was sparsely furnitured, with an old worn sofa, a table, and some bookshelves, mostly empty. All the windows had been nailed shut with thick planks and iron bars, allowing no light to enter or escape. In one of the walls was a gaping hole, that opened into another room, but Buffy could not see what it looked like. By a desk in the corner, a man sat huddled over a book.

"Henry" said Leila. "We have a visitor". The man stopped reading, then got up and turned towards them. He was tall, middle aged, but yet with a youthful appereance, short cropped reddish hair.

Buffy froze in shock and complete surprise. Surprise could also be read in the mans face, as his jaw dropped. "Buffy?!" he expelled.

It took a while for Buffy to find her breath, the shock was to big.

In the end she managed to stutter; "D-d-dad?"

"Buffy, how, why,,,, what are you doing here!?" "You shouldn't be here, you have to leave" There was panic in Hank Summers voice.

Panic, and bewilderment. No less bewildered was Buffy.

"_I_ shouldn't be here? No, _you_ shouldn't be here!" "You should be in New York, being all lawyery with papers and fancy suits!" Buffy was near to crying with confusion and half-denial, making her short of breath and somewhat dizzy.

"Oh, Buffy" Hank rushed to her and embraced his daughter. "Oh Buffy, I dont know how you found me, but you cant stay. Its too dangerous."

"But I wasn't looking for you, I ,,, I didn't know…."

Leila broke in, "Henry? You have a daughter? "

Hank looked at her sharply. "Yes, I do. How could you bring her here, now? " "Did you tell her I was here?"

"No, not at all. She wanted to speak to mr. Zabuto. "

Buffy, teary eyed and still dizzy with surprise, stepped back from her fathers embrace. "Mr Zabuto? Is that your watcher? " Leila nodded.

"Mr. Sam Zabuto?"

"How did you know that?" Hank asked her.

"That's something Id like to know as well". Another voice entered the conversation. A deep, thickly accented voice.

Buffy turned her head towards the voice. It belonged to a medium sized, dark skinned man, wearing a somber suite and glasses. At first he looked skinny, but a closer look revealed tight, strong muscles and a straight, alert posture. He was impeccably shaved, and his shoes were perfectly shined, even in this rundown shack. "_Oh, yes_," Buffy thought. "_A watcher, for sure_."

The Watchers eyes had a sharpness about them as he took in the scene in front of him. "I would like an explanation, if you please" he demanded.

"Mr Zabuto, I…" Buffy started, but was interrupted by her father.

"Sam, meet my daughter" "I don't know how she found us, or how she knew your name. It appears she was looking for you"

"Ah. " Short, authorative. "Perhaps the young lady would care to explain?". Buffy opened her mouth to speak, but once again Hank beat her to it. "Um, Buffy, does this have anything to do with that incident in L.A., with the clinic?"

" Uh, well, I guess yeah. But only in a strictly non-delusional way", she was quick to add.

"You see, my daughter somehow learned of the existence of the slayer some years back, while I was still living with her mother." "She got the idea that she _was_ in fact the slayer, and we were a little concerned for a while, but it passed. Or so it seemed, at least."

He went on. "Now I think things have gotten a little more serious, I am afraid." "And more dangerous".

He looked at Buffy. " Darling, did you come to be trained as a slayer? Cause it doesn't work that way, to be a slayer you must be born to it."

Buffy was speachless. How should she respond to something like this?

Leila offered her contribution- " She was walking with a vamp, knowing what he was. If I hadnt been there….. ".

There was a moment of silence, and Buffy lunged at the chance of clearing things up.

"Mr Zabuto, its not like that. I didn't come looking for you at all, I just happened to meet Leila here, and decided I had to talk to you."

"Yes, I am,um, Henrys daughter, and my name is Buffy. "

Buffy saw a glimpse of pain enter mr Zabutos eyes.

"You were Kendras watcher, were you not? You know who I am?"

Sam Zabuto took his glasses off, wiped his forehead, and sat down at the swivelchair by the desk. "Yes" he said. "Yes, I know". "Summers, of course, like Henry. " There was a stutter from Hank, "W-w-wha…." Then he fell silent. One could tell that Zabuto was not finished.

The watcher took a deep breath, then looked at Buffy. "So, it was the other one then? The murderer?"

"Huh..?

"She died, the one after Kendra. Faith, wasn't that what they called her?" " I have been wondering about that, but figured it would be you, since Leila was called when Sunnydale was destroyed."

Buffy shook her head. "No, Faith is alive, and, might I add, very non-homocidally acting as a slayer. Thats not why Leila was called." That is what I needed to talk to you about."

Buffy cast a glance at her father. Confusion was going rampant in his mind, it was easy to tell. But something was dawning. "Oh god, Buffy, you- you, youre really a slayer, arent you?!" She nodded. "For nearly nine years now"

Hank was shaken, fighting disbelief. "So..when we committed you, you…" "I was telling the truth,yes dad."

"And when Kendra was called it was because…." Hank struggled with his voice, could not say what came next. "I died" Buffy finished the sentence for him.

"Oh god", he said again.

"Yeah, I know" "Pretty intense"

"But the explanations will have to wait, dad, cause there are things I have to, uhh, explain, to mr Zabuto, and Leila."

"Whos Kendra? And how can you be a slayer, theres only supposed to be one, isnt there?" Leilas bafflement was utter and complete.

"Why dont we sit down and get comfy, and Ill be explanation girl, ok?"

Chapter 4.

In northern Louisiana near the town of Dibbley, there lay what had once been a large plantation. The central manor was a huge, stately house, now surrounded by many smaller buildings in similar style, some still in construction. Surrounding the area were high wire fences, topped with barbwire. Not in itself impressingly secure, it appeared at first sight, but anyone trying to cut through it would find it strangely hard to do so. On the other hand, someone attempting to climb it, would be able to do so with equally surprising ease, exept for the part where they could not seem to actually get to the other side. They would touch ground at pretty much the same spot they started from.

If one should happen to find oneself inside somehow, there would not be sign of the fence anywhere.

The official name of the manor was Duchamps manor, but its new inhabitants had, since they moved in about six months earlier, aquired the habit of referring to it as "Slayer Central". And while the state of Louisiana, had it registred as a private school for girls, it actually contained mostly remarkably strong-muscled and agile girls and women, studying not so much Mathematics and grammar(Though, it should be said, some did) as being trained in the tactics and technices of various martial arts.

A very long road led up from the large gates to the manor, on wich a car was speeding towards it. It stopped in front of the main entrance, and a middle aged man, clad in a well-tailored tweed jacket and good trousers stepped out from the passengers side. A young woman exited from the back seats, and together they went to collect pieces of baggage from the trunk. The man then went to the door of the car and leaned inside. " Park the car, Andrew, and get inside. We will be meeting with Willow and Xander as soon as weve had a meal."he said in a british accent.His voice carried impatience and a touch of anger. "Yes, mr Giles" came the answer from the drivers seat, with conciderable lisp, and nearly before Giles had closed the door the car was away towards the garages.

"Good lord, Im glad to be back" he said to the girl. "I must say, I am amazed at your calm, Rita. How do you do it?"

Rita smiled, "I think some of his thoughts are rather interesting. Dont forget, if you are to teach wisdom to hundreds of young slayers, it might not be wasted to communicate it to them in terms they are familiar with." And with a quick "Bye" she was off to her room in the slayersdorm.

Giles looked at her back, with his mouth gaping. Then he shook his head and picked up his suitcase. "The earth is doomed" he said under his breath and started up the massive stone stairs for the door.

Slayer Central had wings, and buildings with wings has quarters. Giles had some, and one and a half hours after his homecoming, he left them, stomach full and clothes changed. He headed for another wing of the house, until he arrived at the correct door and entered without knocking. He knew he was expected. Inside he found Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris sitting on the couch, laughing at some unknown, and, Giles thought, probably ununderstandable joke. They turned towards him, and Willow lit up. "Giles!" she cried, and ran towards him and gave him a big hug. "Weve missed you.!" "Oh, Im sure you have" said Giles, faking discomfort. Willow released him, only to be replaced within a second by a blurry shape throwing itself at him in a flourish of long dark hair. "Good heavens Dawn, are you trying to knock the breath from an old man?" " And when did you get so tall, anyway?"

" Maybe if you hadnt been away so long, you mightve found out" was Dawns snappy reply. "Im so glad youre back, are you gonna stick around this time?"

Giles wriggled his way out of Dawns strong grip, she really had grown since he last saw her, and was now actually taller than him.

"Well, it seems so, at the moment at least. Hello Xander."

"Hi Giles, how was Australia?"

"Big, hot, with loud strange-talking people, much like America really."

"Good, and your meeting with the wonderful wizard of Auss?"

"Oh, quite, um..fruitless, wich is what I had hoped for, I must confess." . But please Xander, I would appreciate it if you never again let Andrew do the travel arrangements."

"Why, something go wrong?"

"Nah.. it was cool!" came Andrews voice from the door.

"Do I sense trouble in the ranks?" Dawn wore her most innocent false bewilderment-face.

"Well," started Giles. "It seems that by some coincidence, apparently, the hotel we were booked into also played host to a Star Wars convention. So basically, I tried to carry out an important meeting with a very powerful wizard in the middle of what appeared to any sane person as a place to put those that are not"

He fixed a fierce gaze at Andrew, who seemed perfectly oblivious to him. Rather, he had a very exited look about him, a look that was suddenly mirrored by Xander across the room.

But Giles did not give up easily. " When Andrew gave me the date and location, he gave me the impression that it was on mr. Thilgates instructions. Mr. Thilgate, on the other hand, informed me that it was Andrew who picked time and place for the meeting. The place was packed with kids dressed in peculiar costumes, and at one time, Rita came within an inch of killing an especially eleborately made up member of the convention crew, believing it to be a demon."

"Whoa, lucky she didn't then" said Xander. "Did you get to meet any famous people, Andy?" Xander ignored Giles completely, his eye wide with envy.

"Ah..well, I saw some, but I only got to talk to Hayden, and he was, like, uhh, rude?" " I tried to talk to him about how Anakin should become Darth Vader, because, everyone says hes going to fall into a volcano, cause, that's what Lucas said in the "Return" novelization, you know, but that's all bullshit, you know?" "Cause, as everyone that pays any attention att all will know, when you look at still shots of Vader when the emperor throws force lightning at him, one can see that he has surgical implants grafting toghether his spine and neck in places that would explain both his need for the body suit and the breathing aid…you know. And none of those injuries can be explained by just falling into a volcano, would they?" Andrew was getting agitated, and Giles was busily polishing his glasses, while looking around him with increasing panic. Xander was already telling Andrew that while he understood his resonnement, he had to argue that Vader could have received the neck injuries at a later point in his career, before Giles could collect himself enough to insist "Does anyone care to here what news from London, or what I learned about the Hellmouth in Jerermys Bounty?"

"Uh.. sure… "said Xander.

"Oh good heavens, I have a watcher that drags me halfway around the world so that he can run around in brown rags, waving a piece of green plastic, and a slayer who would rather take wisdom from a two foot tall muppet than from me." "Could you all pay some attention now?"

"Yes great Master, we will try" said Xander in mock somberity. " Do, or do not, there is no try" volunteered Willow, in her double-chin-voice.

"Ah…yes, what she said.."

"Oh, Giles, I can so hear that youre happy to be home" , Dawn chippered to finish off.

"Oh, bugger, would everyone just sit down?"

Everyone did.

"Well, first, things in London are coming along as fine as one can expect. We are getting the new Watchers Council going a little by little, trying to piece together a new library from various sources, and getting oversight over the Councils volumous financial resources. There is some disgruntlement within the council as far as its new role as a support and guidance-body goes, but…"

"But you will have them gruntled just like that, right?" "What, ah, yes thank you, Xander. Now, as it is, one of the things a Watcher has to learn to survive, is to know where the power lies. The old council forgot this, I am sad to say."

"This new council is put together of Watchers with actual fieldtime, and they have been made aware of, and recognizes, that now the power resides with the slayers. They will come around and they will fulfill their new role. I promise you. "

Everyone took a second. Willow spoke next; " And you told them nothing of me?"

"No, nothing. I agree with you, they are not ready for that knowlegde, that all the slayers are in telepathic contact with and coordinated on a large scale by one single person." "The power you hold is immense, Willow, and concidering some of your personal history….. well, one might suspect it could push some of the more reluctant watchers out into the cold, so to speak"

"No, I guess not" Willow sat in silence for a moment." Im not sure Im ready for them to know either. "

" How are you with all this, Willow? " Giles was starting to look concerned.

"Its hard, feeling them that way, out there." "And every once in a while, one of them dies, and its just horrible."

"I guess so"

"Yeah. But tell us about Australia. "

"Willow, if you…."

"No, tell. Nothing?"

" Yes, nothing. The wizard Thilgate told me that he is part of an order sent to Australia thousands of years ago to keep an eye on the hellmouth, to see nothing untowards was going on. Many such groups were dispatched all around the world, and it is dawning on me that just finding one still existing is probably a good sign nothing has moved there at all. "

"You see, any hellmouth leaking any demonic energy tend to attract the kind of attention to the effect that these watchers are immediately exterminated."

"Mr. Thilgate himself, while knowlegdable of magic, and well informed of his mission, and yet knew nothing of other hellmouths or of the other groups. "

" I see". Willow looked thoughtful. "He was under the impression that he was guarding the one and only hellmouth, right?"

"Yes."

"And nothing was going on?"

"He said the hellmouth, he didn't call it by that name by the way, is completely shut. The wall between the worlds is thin, a given, or it wouldn't be a hellmouth, but whole and undisturbed. All is calm and quiet."

"I see."

"So, please tell me Willow, why? Why did you ask me to go halfway across the world to talk with one old gatekeeper of a locked door?"

"Oh, Ive had people check other places too, not just Jeremys Bounty"

She turned towards Giles. "Your mr. Thilgate, he is either incompetent, or a liar"

"I have delved the earth, felt it, which by the way, Andrew, does _not_ equal _astraltravelling the Himalayas._Giles, the veils are under attack, all of them."

_Jeremys Bounty, Australia_

The town lay dark and silent beneath the hills. The Bounty slept, but deep within the abandoned goldmines a man was walking through the dark, with a magical light showing him the way through the tunnels.

He soon entered a large cave, brightly lit though it was impossible to spot any obvious lightsources. In the middle of the cave was what appeared to be only a dim shadow, but a closer look revealed a humanformed shape, of indeterminate gender. The man walked up close to the shape, and in the silent a faint voice could be heard.

"_So_ Mr. Thilgate, did you manage to satisfy the man from the Watchers Council?"

"Yes,eternal one, he left assured that the veil is at rest and unpenetrated."

"_Good_, good. Then we can go on. I have spoken to my brothers, and everything is in place, The veils are being prepared for penetration, and soon we will eat them and gain the strength and power needed for our end. Only two things remain to be attended to, and our silly pets in dead Seraphapolis will see to one of them shortly. When the Shanshu Prophecy has perished, and the Zchimitad Prophecy is silenced,then our suffering will stop, and so will yours, my good servant. Yours, and everybody elses. _Everybody!"_

12


	2. Chapter 2

A few notes from the author.

Did you think summer vacation was a time for putting other things aside and get working on your fic? Not for me. I have been a busy man, you believe me. Therefore it took me about forever to finish this chapter. I saw this coming, so I published what I had finished this spring, but finally I have come to a point now where I have forced my self to declare chapter 2 complete. It has been a lot trickier to write than I thought it would be, so I really hope my efforts have paid off, and that you like it.

CHAPTER 2

The appartment was silent, the shock and surprise over what Buffy had told them about the new slayers, had left everybody temperarily unable to speak. Hundreds of slayers, every potential realised, something unheard of in history. Something never imagined possible.

"That- thats incredible!" It was Sam Zabuto who finally managed to find some words to break the silence.

"Not as incredible as you not knowing about it", replied Buffy.

"Well..weve been living, ah, off the grid for several years now", said Hank Summers. "Curcumstances has forced us to keep out of touch with mostly anybody, so weve had no news exept what is in the newspapers, and, hey, that kind of stuff normally doesn't end up there. I took a big risk last year when I called to find out if you were alright after the disaster in Sunnydale. I would have come to see you and Dawn if I could."

"Off the grid, hah? Care to explain why?"

Hank threw a glance towards Zabuto, who shook his head. "Not yet, we must be careful" he said.

"Yeah, ok, but how about you get explainy on me, dad. Tell me why youre cooped up here, hiding with a slayer and her watcher, instead of setting up shop in New York like you said you were doing."

"I guess I owe you an explanation, don't I."

"Id say you do. Me and Dawn both have seriuos issues with the way you suddenly was nowhere to be seen. Not even when mother died."

"Yeah, I know. I know, Buffy. I wish it could be different, really. But there is a reason, and I will tell you all about it. But that story is too long to tell right now."

"Dad!"

"Please Buffy, later." Hanks face had a seriousness about it that convinced Buffy to let it go for now. "Ok, later. "

"We have more urgent matters do discuss" said Mr.Zabuto. "Like, why are you here, and how did you find us.?"

"And whether you have any coffee, or food to offer. Im getting sort of peckish here."

"Henry will see to it, wont you?"

"Yeah, I guess. Were getting short, though.There will have to be shopping soon."

Hank left for the kitchen, leaving the other three in awkvard silence. Leila was sitting in the corner of the couch, thoughtful and saying nothing.

"Are you alright" Mr Zabuto asked her.

"Yeah, fine. Its just a little much to take in all at once. Youve spent the last years telling me all about how I am the One, the Chosen, the only to stand against the demons of the world, and suddenly, Im not."

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, I remember. And I only had to deal with the idea of _one_ extra slayer, rather than hundreds." She looked into Mr. Zabutos eyes, there was that glimpse of pain and sorrow again.

"Ok, whats between you two, how do you know eachother, and who is Kendra!?" Leila got to her feet and folded her arms, demanding answers.

"So, youve told her nothing about Kendra, or about me for that matter? Buffy wondered.

Zabuto looked at her. "Do you know much about the slayer before you?"

Buffy shut her mouth. "No, since you ask" she finally said. "No."

"And you wouldn't, what little mr. Giles would know, he probably wouldn't share with you. "

"That is why Leila know nothing of you. Why I have not told her about Kendra, is a different matter altogether".

"Well, maybe now is the time, no matter what?" Leilas tone was no-nonsense and stern.

As Mr Zabuto started telling Leila about Kendra, Buffy followed her father into the kitchen. He appeared deep in thought, and at first didn't notice her looking at him. Only when he had turned on the coffee machine did he turn around and started when he saw her in the doorway.

"Oh god, Buffy, don't sneak up on me that way, I am too jumpy these days, I might hurt you accidentally."

"Ahh… I don't know if you noticed ,dad, but I am a slayer, I doubt you could hurt me much, superstrength and slayer-instincts concidered."

"Oh, I didn't mean in a fisticuffs kind of way, I surely would have fallen somewhat short in that compartment I guess. Though I should tell you, I have become quite able to handle myself in a fistfight as well these last years. "

"As well?"

"Yes". Hank looked around and his eyes fell to rest at the kitchen table, which had two chairs by it. "Sit down, Buffy, and well talk.

Buffy sat down, and Hank took the other chair.

"Did Sam suddenly decide the urgent matters could wait?"

"Yeah, hes telling Leila about Kendra. "

"That's not like him, you know, losing his focus that way. You must really have upset him, though no wonder. He doesn't easily talk about Kendra, and having you here….. you were there when Kendra died, werent you?"

"Not there enough, they managed to lure me away, and split us up.She might have lived if not for that."

"Oh".

"Yeah, and you know what happened next don't you"?

"No I …. oh…. That murder charge?"

"Yeah."

"I offered to defend you, or to have someone from my firm, but you mother wouldn't have it. I respected it, and anyway my life was growing a little too dangerous to have you in it right then anyway. "

Buffy looked at her father, eyebrow raised.

"Hell, I didn't know you were the slayer, I had only just learned that there really was such a thing."

"Ah… here we go again, with the "what are you doing here" part. I mean, I doubt youre here to offer helpful legal advice on the economics of vampires and demons. Or, uhhm.. are you?"

Hank sighed. "No, I think I can be fairly certain when I say my lawyering days are over, the only breaches of law I concern myself now is those of natural law, and much of that concists of doing the actual breaching, and now youre looking like a big question-mark.."

"U-ha…. I would like you to explain in a way less like the way _I _talk.

"O-ok. Ah where was I?"

"The breeches of law."

"Absolutely….. Well, anyway, at the present I am here in the capacity of a watcher-in-training with Sam, and before that I had managed to work myself up to become a quite skilled warlock."

"Oh…. My dad, the warlock. Right.. And by quite skilled, you mean, like floating pencils and making little lights in the air and stuff?"

"By that I mean that I studied battle magic with a very powerful teacher, who recognised a potential in me and convinced me to join him. Not that I had much choice at the time, I would likely be dead if I hadnt learned to defend myself against magic attacs. "

"So that's why youre hiding here, "off the grid", full of knowing-nothing."

"No, that came later. Completely different matter, actually. I cant tell you much about it until Sam gives his say-so, but there is one thing you should know, that concerns _me_.

"Yeah, theres something you should know too, though not about me, but about Dawn."

Hanks hand flew across the table and grabbed Buffys wrist.

"Dawn is alright, isnt she? Theres nothing wrong with her?"

"Hey, take it easy, Dawn is fine, nothing to worry about, Ill tell you as soon as you finish what you were going to say."

"You promise shes ok?"

"I promise, now go ahead."

"Ok, here we go. When I first joined Sam and Leila, before Leila was called, there was someone already travelling with them. Two women, and one of them… we sort of ….met each other, if you get where Im going."

"Ah… would this be the secretary we heard so much about?"

"No, there was never any secretary, that was just a cover I made up. No, this was a very special woman in more than one way. It was because of her I decided to stay with them, the decicion to train as watcher came later, more as an afterthought. We got close while working together to protect….we got close, and in the end we decided…"

Hanks story was interrupted by a shrill ear-pearcing wailing, and he jumped to his feet and ran to the living room. "The ward-spell has been breached!" he shouted, and Buffy, following on his heels saw her father picking a large sword from under the living-room table-plate, Sam Zabuto was already wielding a two-headed battle-axe, and Leila was in ready-position, stakes in hand. Buffy herself drew a short-sword from within her heavy leather coat, and a wooden stake to match it. It was nice to be always prepared. There was a loud crash from the hallway as the floor was pulled down and collapsed, Leila, who was closest to the door, looked into the corridor, and yelled to them; "vampires, and a lot of them!"

Then they were there. It was indeed vampires, charging at them mindlessly and brutally, with bared fangs. Leila had already dusted two when the first ones reached Buffy, who stood back to back with her father in the middle of the room. Hanks sword swung trough the air and took the head off one even as Buffy effortlessly staked three who had jumped at her. Was this all they could throw at her? Then she heard a shrill female voice from behind her shouting, "_Is it too late to join the fun!?_" , she turned around to see the big hole in the living-room wall, and in the opening was a sight to bring her heart to the ground, her stomach into a nauseating knot, and her body and mind into attack overdrive. She started towards the woman, with two long, sideways strides who got her into the position and momentum to plant a full slayer-force powered kick right to the torso, Against a normal person, or a vampire for that matter, a kick that powerful would have snapped ribbones and crushed lungs and hearts. This time it didn't, though the woman was lifted off the ground and across the room, where she smashed through the wall. Buffy, pretty sure she had identified the real threat, went after her, and when she met her enemy crawling out of the hole in the far wall, she grabbed her by her jacket collar and threw her once more through the air so she landed on the living-room floor after taking with her a few vampires in the fall. Buffy lunged after her in a blind fury, and standing over her she lifted her sword to run her through if possible. But right as she was about to strike, she was rammed aside, falling to the floor with strong arms holding her fast. She tried to pry herself loose, but stopped in surprise as she saw her fathers face right next to her own.

"Don't!" Hank shouted into her ears. "Shes with us, shes the one I was telling you about!"

"What?" screamed Buffy in disbelief.

"She is on our side, don't attack her, we need her!" Hank continued. He let go of Buffy,

Buffy got to her feet, and saw that her opponent had taken loose on the vampires with brutal savagery, and was making a right big killing. She almost didn't notice the vampire that jumped at her, before she managed just in time to twist out of his way and plant her stake in his heart. But they were still coming, and in increasing numbers. "Well", thought Buffy, "they have been busy bees in this town, no wonder the death toll made it into the news ."

She was forced to stop thinking and get into the fight as five vamps crawled up through a hole that had appeared in the corner of the room and went for her, but over the din she could her a piercing voice crying out; "Wouldn't you think those guys would have learned by now!?" And the vampires went down like to a lawnmower before the hands of the hellgod Glory.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Slayer central_

"Will, did the concept of trivial facts get lost to you sometime during the last day?". Xander tried not to let his jaw drop too far. Everyone else had been shocked into silence. Living in Sunnydale had taught them the horrors of an open hellmouth, the idea of all of them opening was way past what any of them ever had wanted to concider. Not an issue for a game of TP, one could safely agree.

"Good lord, Willow, are you certain of this?" Giles was trying to polish his glasses, but his hands had stopped in mid-action.

Willow nodded. "Yes" she said. "Im sure."

"What does this mean, Willow?" asked Giles, the concern on his face evident.

"Someone is trying to open all the hellmouths?"

"I don't know, really, but it would seem so" Willow was pacing the floor. "I don't really know anything, but I have been touching the teeth of the earth often since the coven in England taught me to feel the earth. I have felt them, learned the feel and touch of them. They have changed, Giles. They don't feel the same, and I think someone is doing it on purpose."

"What do you mean, "not the same"?"

"Its not easy to explain, but somehow the mouths seem to have _brittled, _if you get my drift".

"We don't , please try again."

"Ok, let me try this way. What we call a hellmouth, is in effect a place where the veil between the worlds are thin. _Thin_, mind you not like Sunnydale, which in addition was breached, and had an actual opening into the hell beneath. So, the veils are thin, and extremely, uhm… elastic, so to speak. Most of the energy surrounding a regular hellmouth stem from the stretching of this membrane-like thing as beings and badness from other dimensions try to push through to our world..

What has been happening lately, though, is that these membranes seem to have started losing their elasticity, becoming harder, but also more brittle, and therefore, in effect, weaker. "

"And what makes you think that someone is doing this, rather than, uhm… natural causes?

"I don't know, its just that, its happening everywhere at once, call it a hunch, or whatever".

"Why havent you told us about this before, Will?" Xander wondered. "This is like, you know, important stuff?"

"I wasn't sure, I had to send people to find out. And now the reports are coming in, either of strange things happening, or of people lying about it, like in Jeremys Bounty."

"Have you been trying to find out what could be causing this?"

"Of course, Giles, but Ive come up with nothing. Very little is known about hellmouths, in fact, I probably know more about them than anybody else alive, or maybe ever, and I cant figure out how it is being done, or who could possibly be doing it."

"What about Sunnydale, do you know how that hellmouth opened?"

Willow shook her head. "No Dawn, but it is a good thought, perhaps we should look into it, what do you say, Giles?"

"Yes, yes I think we should, considering how little we have to go on here. I don't know anything about it as such, but I can think of a few passages in the Hezmana Codex that might provide some leads."

Xander shuddered. "Hezmana Codex, that means prophesies, right? I hate researching prophesies, they always seem to point out how ubelively unimportant I am."

The others looked at him questioningly. "What? Its just Im never in them, even when everybody I know seem to have one of their own! Plus, these prophet people have an attitude to the world like japanese filmmakers have to Tokyo."

"Well" said Giles. "Doesn't seem to be any time to waste, I shall ask mr Harker to bring us the codex and everything he might know of that could cast some light over it. It is not easy reading, to say the least."

"Ahh, our fine, fun-loving, librarian. Tell me Giles, does he have a "Ripper"-phase in his life, or has he always had his outfit choises be "tweed, tweed, tweed, or, on a raucious day of rebellion, tweed without a jacket?"

"Leave it, Xander, mr Harker is a highly respected watcher, and I doubt you would find a more knowlegdeable librarian for a library of the occult anywhere in the world. If there is anything that can be of help to us, he will find it."

Xander threw his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

"Ahh..just a few small details, people" Andrew raised his hand carefully. "Who should be in on this, I mean, until we know more, you know?

Everybody was looking at Willow. "Just us, for now, oh, and Kennedy. We better play it close for the time being. Dawn, have you heard from Buffy?

"Yeah, shes coming in, but she was going to make a stop up north, there was some worrying newscases about a town with an epidemic of disapperances and bodies with neckwounds showing up. She figured it may be something she might make her business, sort of."

"So well do without her, Buffy has never been hot on research-duty anyway."

"Good, Ill go see mr Harker about the volumes, and we will get started. " Giles started for the door, followed by Xanders voice; "The force will be with you, always."

There is something strangely discomforting about a tweed-clad man in his fifties flipping you the finger.

Twist, stab, duck! Back away, twirl around, stab again. Was there no end to them? There comes a time for every fighter, when the training takes over for the thoughts, an economisation of brain capacity that minimizes the concious minds involvment in the combat.

This leaves room for other thoughts to pass through the fighters mind, to take in more of the big picture, and to make decicions on matters in what passes for long perspective in the compressed time-frame of life-and-death situations.

For Buffy Summers, this meant that she in the midst of fending off myriads of the undead, she was still able to afford taking in the new twist. Glory was on her side! She had a hard time believing this. The anger and hatred she felt, combined with the frustration of confution, was vented upon the vampires who flocked around her. Stab, turn, kick! "_Shes with us"_, her fathers words echoed in her mind. "_Shes the one I was telling you about"_

And more, _"Two women, and one of them… we sort of ….met each other, if you get where Im going."_ Her father, and Glory, the god of hell, evil incarnate, would-be destructor of the world, and Dawn.

Buffy was distracted for a moment, but was pulled back into focus by a set of fangs penetrating the skin of her neck from behind. She let herself fall forwards into a roll, and staked another vamp as she got to her feet again. She jumped onto the table and got the perspective of the situation. What was this all about? So many vampires just to get to her?

She looked for her father, and found him just a few yards away, slashing with his sword, his lips moving, and she realised he was weaving spells as he fought. And she saw Glory, bashing away on the vampires. Buffy realised that while the hellgod was still way more powerful than any normal human, or vampire for that matter, she was not as strong as she had used to be. And as Buffy watched her, Glorys face started to show unease. She held her hands to her head for a second, shaking it as in denial.Her expression was beginning to change to fear, and suddenly the vampires drew back from her. A new train of thought suddenly ran throug Buffys mind, and more of her fathers words; _we got close, and in the end we decided…"_

Decided what? And then it all connected, the conversation she had overheard the mystery being tell the vamps; _"Get rid of the Summers woman. She will not die easily, she is extremely powerful, but make sure she does, ok?"_And the rest of it; "_Draw her out, isolate her, and the coven can do their task". _She had not given it much thought, and figured that "the covens task" was something that came after her death. But now everything had changed. She herself was hardly isolated, being crowded with vampires, and Leila now actually back to back with her on the table. "_In the end we decided to….. " _ get married….that was what he was going to say. He had married her. Buffy was not "the Summers woman", Glory was. And Glory was isolated, standing alone in the middle of a circle of the undead, most of them, Buffy realised, standing with their backs to her, fending away everyone who would try to get close to her. Glorys face was now a perfect picture of confution, denial, and fear. She did not fight any longer, just shaking her head and Buffy could see her lips move, mouthing "No, no" over and over. "_and the coven can do their task" _Buffy suddenly realised what "the covens task" was. Glory might not have the raw force Buffy remembered, but she was apparently still all but invulnerable, and probably as immortal as ever. But Glory had another side to her, another persona who was neither.

Buffy swept away a couple of particularily clingy vampires, so fresh from their graves she could still smell the dirt on them, and somersaulted across the fangy crowd to land next to her father, who was still muttering spells under his breath. "Dad" she cried over the noises of howling demons and other sounds of the fight. "Theyre going after Glory, they have isolated her, and they have witches somewhere doing magic to draw out Ben, so they can kill her!"

"What are you talking about?!" shouted Hank. "Whos Ben?! "Don't worry, they cant hurt Gloria!"

"Yes, they can, if they can make Ben come out now, they will cut him down easily, and she will die with him!" Gloria, huh? "Dad, this attack is staged to "draw her out", do you have a place where they would have to draw her out from, somewhere safe?"

"Yeah, upstairs, through the next room and up the ladder in the closet, is closed off with a soul mirror."

"Ok, Ill get her there, no matter how little I want to save her!"

"What, Buffy, no! Shell be alright, they cant hurt her, I tell you."

By now, Buffy realised that Hank knew nothing of Ben, or Glorys two faces, she would have to do this on her own. She took a short second to gather her senses, then charged through the boiling masses of flegdling stake- fodder vamps. She didn't care to waste time on staking most of them, but threw them out of her way to open a path into the circle where the hellgod had now fallen to her knees, her face in fierce consentration, fighting the change which threatened to obliterate her. "I cannot belive that I am doing this" thought Buffy. Saving Glory from death was the last thing she had been expecting to spend her night doing when the sun went down earlier that night. If anything, killing her would have come to mind more readily. She reached the hunched figure, grabbed her and threw her over her shoulder. Immidiately Glorys panic started to recede, as Buffys presence disturbed the focus of whatever spell was in play. Buffy forced their way through the undead crowd, using her protectee as a shield, with no real bad concience about it. She was after all, invulnerable, and also as far as Buffy could say, evil. But the fact that a throng of the evil dead wanted her dead, was to Buffy cause for deciding that for the time being she herself did not.

Buffy managed to bash her way through to the hole in the wall, entering into the dark room beyond. There was indeed a large closet at the back of the room, and when she opened the doors she could just make out a stepladder leading up through the ceiling, just like the one she had entered the appartment through. This one was longer though, she must have passed by a couple of floors at least before she finally found the top of the ladder, inside another closet. Buffy punched the door open, and fell into a small room containing two single beds, a sofa , and lit only by a single lamp on a single small coffee table. Buffy felt a tingling on her skin as she fell into the room, and Glory drew a deep breath and relaxed.

Then Buffy noticed that they were not alone. In the end of one bed, a human figure sat quietly watching them. A woman, slim, with long, brown hair, and sharp, beautiful features to her face. Another piece in the puzzle fell in place; this had to be what they were protecting. The woman stood up and approached them. "Gloria, are you alright? she asked. Glory sat on the floor, breathing heavily. "Yeah, but that was close. Too close. But Im safe now, I could tell they didn't feel what was happening, so their spell touched the soul mirror. Something very unpleasant will have happened to them by now."

Only now did her eyes meet Buffys. "I guess I should say thank you, but until I know what you are, I prefer to withold my gratitude. Meanwhile, there is work to be done downstairs." She got up, walking towards the cabinet they had emerged from, but before she got that far, Hank Summers came climbing out of the hole in the floor and ran into the room towards Gloria. "My god, Gloria, what happened?" he shouted and put his arms around her, holding her tight. "I nearly died, they almost got me, and it took me completely by surprise." Glory replied. Buffy felt her stomach turn. Then a moment later came Mr Zabuto into the room as well, Leila following shortly after. "They just stopped and ran!" said Leila. "What happened?"

"Their bosses got fried by the mirror" said Glory. "I tied it up to the shield spell before I went downstairs, so it kicked in much before they could have expected."

Hank looked at Buffy. "I…I don't know how this could happen, but it seems you saved Glorias life, Buffy. Thank you, thank you so much!" Glory looked at Buffy, and suddenly she was at her, holding her by the throat, growling into her face; "Who are you, and _what _are you?" Now, this was more like the Glory Buffy knew, and hated. And then Hank was there; "Gloria, stop! This is my daughter, Buffy!" Glory did not lose eyecontact with Buffy as she replied; "Buffy Summers was your daughter, Henry?" Her voice was cold as steel.

"What do you mean, was, this is my daughter right here, you have to let her go.!"

"Listen, Henry, I know we both have things we have chosen not to talk about, and it seems some of them are coming out today, but one thing I can say with certainty; Buffy Summers, the vampire slayer, is dead. I saw her die, with these very eyes. "

Buffy was unable to breathe, and her lungs were starting to burn, and she fought to get free.

"Let her go, Gloria, please! Lets find out whats going on before we get drastic, ok?"

Glory looked at Hank, then released her grip on Buffys throat. Buffy fell to the floor, gasping for her breath for a moment before she between coughs managed to find the remnants of a voice.

" See you havent lost your tender touch, Glorificus".

"God, Buffy, are you alright?" Hank was at her side, holding her.

"Yeah, Ill be fine, for now". Buffy found her feet again.

She looked at Glory, who had stood back, more relaxed, but in a position to attack at any time. She was wearing denim trousers, sneakers, and a sturdy jacket.

"Your new life cut deep in your shoes budget?"

Glory did not answer, did not bugde. Just a long, hard, stare.

Hank broke in. "Hey, I don't know whats with you two, but youre bloody well going to tell me. I wont have this fighting, you are both important to me, and you are fighting the same fight.Ok? Now, stand down, both of you!"

But Glory did not stand down. "Listen Henry" she said between her clenched teeth. "I never knew you had children, let alone that you were the slayers father, but thats alright. We agreed to let eachother keep our secrets. But I tell you, this is not your daugther. I saw Buffy Summers fall hundreds of feet to her death, I heard her bones break and her intestines shatter. I saw her die, Henry, taking her sisters place. And I saw them carry her away. No one, not even a slayer could have survived that. Not to mention that only her death could have closed the gateway that had opened. Nothing less. "

She finally took her eyes away from Buffy, for a fraction of a second. Then she returned to her icy stare.

"Whoever, or whatever this is, it is not your daughter."

"What? Gloria, this is crazy talk, Buffy…"

"She is right dad"

Hank stared at her.

"Part of it, anyhow. I died, that's true. But I was brought back, by my friends."

"What I heard was that you drowned, and was brought back on the spot through mouth to mouth. There were no falling from high places in that story!"

"Uh, yeah….that was, like, the first time? Second time around was a bit more complicated, and Im not exagerating. "

"Second time!? You died…..you died…twice?" The last words were nearly airless.

This made even Glory take on a look of stunning. Everybody in the room looked at each other, and Buffy got a strange feeling from their looks.

"Yeah", she said. "Twice."

But Glorys suspicions proved to be not yet defeated. "I still dont see what could have saved you from that fall!"

"Does the Rite of Zchracila ring any bells for you?"

"Zchracila?! Who would… who could..?

"Does it matter? It was done, and I am here."

"The urn of Osiris…they, they brought you back…."

"Yeah"

"A slayer, a killer of dead things, twice….dead."

"Your grasp of the obvious is astonishing, now can we get back to now, please?"

"Well, you see Buffy" said Hank, "this could very likely matter a whole lot, here and now."

"Mmm..ok? How?"

"Miriam" Hank turned to the woman on the bed. "Do you think you could touch her, see if the same thing happens as it did with Gloria?"

The woman rose from the bed. "Yes, I will try", she said, her voice was velvety, with an unidentifiable accent. She walked towards Buffy, reached out a hand, and touched Buffys cheek. The she drew her breath sharply, in a quivering gasp. Her eyes closed. "Yes", she said. "It is her".

Buffy looked around, confused again.

"The twice dead bane of the dead, who will make the choice" whispered Mr Zabuto. Hank sat down on the bed, his face white. "Oh god", he said. "Oh god oh god oh god."

"What?!" Buffy was loosing her patience. "The words seem english, but I still feel like I need translation. "

It was Leila who first found her voice and answered Buffy. "Prophecy" she said. "Youre in the prophecy"

"Oh, one of those? Yeah, I hate to brag, but Ive been in a lot of them. I try not to get uppity, though. "

"This is not just any prophecy, Buffy. This, we believe its a big one, an important one. Maybe the the most important ever." said Hank with a voice thick with feelings.

"Let me guess; its the end of the world, apocalypse, fire and hell, the old ones returning to devour the earth and everything living? And for good measure; eternal suffering for everybody?"

"We don't know. The prophecy itself is rather cryptic, and doesn't give away much. But we managed to interpret one passage as containing reference to the hellmouth, so we went to Sunnydale, or rather, the Sunnydale crater, to investigate…."

"But there is no hellmouth in Sunnydale anymore" Buffy intervened. "Its gone, not just closed, but totally not there."

"True. And that is perhaps the most terrifying of it all. The death of the hellmouth indicates that the time of this prophecy is imminent. And we, the only ones in possesion of it, has no idea what is going to happen, or what to do about it. We have had one clue, as it appears Gloria is in it, and now another, linking you in as well. "

"Ok. I don't really get it, but I guess it can wait. But could you try to explain what makes this prophecy different from any other world dooming visions?"

" I can try" volunteered mr. Zabuto. "What do you know about the Zchimitad prophesies?"

"Never heard of them."

"And that is hardly surprising. They have been given very little attention, and for good reason too. You see, they are all gibberish. "

" Aha..unlike the clear and unambigous nature of every other prophecy in existance.."

"Well, in comparison, they are. And that is saying something. The fact is, that through the ages, every prophet who has been visited by the Zchimitad visions has been left completely insane and incoherent before they have been able to communicate very much. If it hadnt been for one thing, no one would even have realised that they were connected. "

"And that one thing is..the Zchimitad, perhaps?"

"Yes. Zchimitad is a word from a dead demon language, which translates into something like "the hidden one", or more commonly, "the veiled one". We don't know what it means, but the very hint of it has destroyed the minds of many prophets beyond repair. Until now."

"Somethings changed?"

"Yes. Some time ago, despite our efforts to conceal ourselves, a priest of the order of Beldan managed to track us down, claiming that one of his brothers was speaking a prophecy of the veiled one, while remaining sane and coherent. He wanted us to bring Miriam to him, to secure the prophecy for the future. "

"What does that mean, what is she?"

"Ill explain later. Anyway, after ascertaining ourselves that he was really a brother of Beldan, we agreed to go with him. But we were almost to late. Someone had left all the brethren dead, but they were still warm. The prophet was nowhere to be seen. In the woods we could still hear demons roaring an shouting, so we were able to follow them. We got to them just in time to stop them slaughtering the prophet, and Miriam managed to get the prophecy from him before he died from the injuries he had already received. Now, we already considered Miriam a great treasure, but from that moment she was a great treasure in mortal danger. Someone had gone to great trouble to exterminate the prophet, and the prophecy with him. There appeared little doubt that they would go on trying if they learned of the prophecys survival. Which, of course, they did. Everything concidered, it seems our little snip of vision is a pretty big deal, to someone very powerful. "

Mr Zabuto ended his story, and Buffy took a moment to take it in. " So, I take it Miriam is one of those "shakeareggeas" ive read about in various books on prophecy? A prophecy vault, as they call it? Exept, most of those books say they are extinct."

"Yes, Miriam is a Sekiraghi, the last of her kind. She can store prophecy within her mind, the original visions, not just the renditions and interpretetions given by each individual prophet. You see, receiving visions, and communicating them to other beings are two very different things. You wouldn't believe how many prophesies are out there who have been interpreted and written down by people with no way to understand what they have seen. So many have had only their own cultural and temporal context to express themselves by. You can imagine what this lead to when someone was visited by purely visual knowlegde of their far future.

The Sekiraghi realised this very early in history, and decided to use their abilities to store the pure, uninterpreted prophesies for, uhm…future reference.

"But now they are all dead? Exept her, is that so?

"Yes, The Sekiraghi are a half-demon breed, but their human half is sadly mortal, though long-lived, and Miriam herself even isnt old enough to have seen other of her kind than her mother, who handed to her what had been saved from the massacre against her race long ago.

Buffy stared at the little woman, so frail-looking. The knowlegde she must harbour, Buffys mind reeled at the thought. "And now there is a new prophecy?"

Miriam nodded. "Brand new. I have never before been given a vision by a prophet in person.Only those passed on to me through my ancestors from ages ago. "

"And how can you know that Im part of it?"

"By touching you. It is like part of the prophecy lights up, so to speak. Stands out. I cannot imagine what else it should mean. It is unheard of in history, but then again, my people pretty much kept to themselves, and never got involved in any of the events or with the people the visions concerned themselves with."

"And how does the god of Hell and shiny shoes fit in"?

It took Buffy a moment to realize the impact her words had on everyone in the room. There was total silence, and looks of frozen puzzlement and shock, which was quickly turning into a habit this last day. A thought rushed through Buffys head that maybe all of them should just stop talking and not say anything more, before they all ended up looking like that. There was a swift memory of her mother telling her not to make faces….

Meanwhile, everybodys eyes had shifted to look not at her, but at Glory, whose expression had expanded to include some fear, and something Buffy was surprised to find looking for the world like guilt. She spoke to the pale-faced deity; "So, you didn't tell them, huh? They really have no idea who, or what you are. Not even the man you married." Glory snapped out of her stasis. "What!?" she said defensively. "Hey, there was an agreement, we kept our secrets and our past to us self. He didn't tell me he had children, I didn't tell him I used to be a hellgod. At least my little secret is firmly in the past, while his….well, here _you_ are."

" So, I don't suppose they know of your little plan to go home, or _how,_ do they? Buffys anger and hatred welled up in her again, her voice was turning flinty and sharp. "Do you think Dawn will call you _mother_, if you meet her? She shouted the last part at Glory, and only the knowlegde that she could do no damage to her prevented Buffy from going at her again.

But at that moment all the fight seemed to leave Glory, and she sank to her knees. She looked up at Buffy, her eyes looked pale and watery, and for the first time Buffy saw humility on her face. Humility, grief, and helpless despair. "I didn't know" she said. "I didn't know, and even had I known, Im not sure I could have…. how could I…?" Tears started streaming from her eyes, and Buffy lost her momentum. If Glory was faking this, she was doing a good job of it, and from what Buffy had seen before of her, her acting was never very convincing. Yet, distrust kept her alert, though she stayed her tongue for the time being.

No one spoke for a while. Not until Leila spoke; " Ok, a god? That was sort of hinted, though you never mentioned the hell-part. But why two-faced?" Buffy looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "Two-faced?" she asked. It was Miriam who answered. "Her part of the prophecy; "when the two-faced god takes stand. Rather cryptic, and we have respected her wish not to speak of it. We still don't know what two-faced means. Personally I figured it might mean she was some sort of spokesperson for Janus, but it seems I was wrong."

"Perhaps you know what it means, Buffy?" asked Mr. Zabuto. Buffy nodded. "Oh, I know what it means, and so does she. Why don't you show them, Glory? Doesn't my father deserve to know who shares his bed along with you?" Glory looked up at her. "No" she said through her whimpers. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't show them. And if I had tried and succeded, it would have meant instant death, for us both. You know that, don't you?" Buffy shook her head. "I don't know what you mean, should I?" Glory slumped again. "Never mind" she muttered.

The atmosphere had turned tense. Buffy felt like things were getting out of hand, to many elements were in play, their attention was distracted, while they still might be in danger. Fortunately, someone had enough presence of mind to cut through it all, and surprisingly it was Hank who came forward. " As much as I hate to interrupt our bash of unpleasant revelations, it might be time to get out of here. Someone still might be around to try taking us out. Anyone got an idea where we should go? " The nececcity of getting on the move stood clear to everybody, and took precedence over whatever issues had come between them. But noone seemed to come up with any ideas. "If they found us here, I can think of nowhere safe anymore" said Mr Zabuto. But Buffy realised that she had already made the decicion some time ago. " You will come with me. Even her."she said, pointing towards Glory. " I will take you somewhere where we can start getting to work out this prophecy of yours."

" Where to?" asked Leila. "Louisiana" said Buffy, turning away from Glory and straightening her coat. "If we can get safely to Slayer Central, you will be protected by scores of slayers, and the worlds most powerful witch. If Central isnt safe, nowhere is. Plus, there will be watchers, and books. Good for prophecy research, getting with the books." She headed for the closet with the accesshole in the floor, and as she dropped down the opening, the others could hear her muttering under her breath; " Yay. Go books!"


	3. Chapter 3

So, it took a long time to get this chapter ready as well. The next chapter is not far away, though. For those who have read my fic before, make sure that you have read the entire, finished chapter 2 before reading this. Hope you all enjoy it.

CHAPTER 3

With the sun rising over Slayer Central, the compound started springing to life. Still sleepy girls were getting up to put in a bout of running before starting their days studies. Others, older ones were getting ready to go to bed after night training, or "real training" as many preferred to call it. Being a slayer was basically a life of perpetual nightshifts. Payed well, though, considering their nearly complete lack of basic living expences.

In Willows appartement there seemed to be no getting up, or to bed for that matter. There was however, a lot of mouldy old books, scrolls, fragments of old books and scrolls, and a very small crowd of extremely tired people.

"Oh, god..has anybody come up with _anything_, at _all_? " moaned Xander from his position in the couch. "Not me" Dawn admitted. "And Im still at squat" said Willow. "What about you, Kennedy?" There was no answer from the chair where Kennedy had at some point dropped unconcious and was now sleeping soundly."

"Giles?"

"No, there doesn't seem to be anything we can use. Weve followed all the leads we could think of, but either we end up with stuff we already know, or that cant be seen to be of any consequence at all. The rest leads us bang into Zchimitad-prophecy, about which I know nothing exept that it is known as a thousand years worth of futility and waste of sanity."

"Why don't we look into those, then. Maybe we can come up with something?"

"Well, first of all, Xander, we don't have any. And if we did, the best we could divulge from it is very likely some moderately uninsane insights into some prophets feelings on the emotional life of goldfish. "

"Oh. I take it you don't think a vengeful goldfish could be behind this then?"

"I am very certain not."

Xander fell silent. There was a sad glimpse in his eye as he took a deep breath and suddenly left the room. "Ill go get some sleep, wake me if you come up with something."

Giles looked after him as he left. "Was it something I said"?

"No." said Willow somberly. "It was something nobody said."

"Excuse me? And what that might be?"

It was Dawn who provided an answer; "It could be bunnies."

"Oh."

Xander didn't go to his room. He was to upset, his emotions and his mind racing. "_Stupid, stupid. I walked straight into it myself. No one to blame. No one but me. Don't make funnies about the cute, Xander. Just…..dont. " _

His pacings had taken him down the stairs, and he was passing the entrance to the library when he bumped into someone, nearly knocking them over.

"Oh, for….oh. Im sorry mr. Harker. Can I get those for you?"

"No thank you mr Harris, Ive got them, thank you very much. "

"Oh, alright then. Sorry again mr Harker, Ill be on my way then. "

"Ah, mr Harris, sir?"

"Yeah?"

"Might I inquire how your research is going? Did the volumes I provided lend any help?"

"No, apparently not unless life on earth is being threatened by a demonically inclined guppy with a ..uhm..scimitar or whatever. "

"Really?"

"Really not, actually.Bye" Xander pushed through the main hall and out into the sunlight.

Mr Harker watched him go. "Scimitar? I wonder…..?" He started up the stairs, and headed towards the mothers chambers. He found the remaining members of the group getting ready to let go and head to bed. "Uhm, Mr Giles, mistress Willow?"

"Yes, mr Harker" said Giles.

"I ran into young master Harris down the hall, he seemed rather distressed with your progress."

"I should say that sums up the feelings of us all rather nicely right about now."

"Mm, yes, but master Harris also gave mention of , uhm, "a guppy with a scimitar". If I may as frank as to ask, have you been dealing with the Iendil-fragments, by any chance?

Giles was taken back for a second. "Ah, no, not as such, I merely used it as a reference since we kept being bogged in Zchimitad. Those fragments are really all I know of the veiled one, as it was used as a study peace when I studied to be a watcher. They hand them out to everyone, allowing them to feel like idiots for a while, before congratulating them on having correctly identified it as nonsense."

"Yes, I know, mr Giles. I did take the training myself. "

"Of course you did, my apologies."

"Exept ,mr Giles, my interest in the Zchimitad did not end there. I have collected them and studied them for over forty years now, and I probably have the most extensive and well-referenced colletion in the world. And I am almost certain that they are much more important than anybody has dared guess. "

"Oh, might I inquire in what way?"

"I really couldn't say, though you yourselves seem to have uncovered another clue tonight. If all this research into the hellmouth leads you to Zchimitad, couldn't it be that they are somehow connected?"

"I should certainly hope not, hellmouths are scary enough as they are. I certainly don't need them to have me grow four heads as well."

"Ah, mr Giles, so you are more knowlegdable on the prophesies than you admit. That passage is not on any watchers council study list."

"Actually, mr Harker, I knew another who had your special interest back in my day. And Im sad to say, drawing further parallels between the two of you would not reflect good upon you."

Harker raised an eyebrow, questioningly.

"He was a complete fruitcake, so to say. " Giles continued. "Now, this collection of yours, do you keep it here?"

"Yes, in a part of the library I took the liberty of sealing off, for my personal use. I believe we spoke of it when I first agreed to serve as your librarian?"

"Yes, of course. And I don't suppose it could hurt, looking into it as long as it doesn't take months or years. You don't suppose you could see what you could conjure while the rest of us get some sleep, could you?"

"Certainly, mr Giles."

"Good, good. Uhm, I believe these are some of the volumes containing the most clear references, I suggest you start with them."

"Thank you, mr Harker, we appreciate your help." said Willow "Now, I will be down to assist in a couple of hours, if thats alright with you."

"Quite, mistress Willow."

Harker gathered up the volumes handed him by Giles and set off to the library downstairs.

Andrew headed right after him, on his way to his own quarters, and Dawn left for her room in the slayers dorm. Kennedy had awakened as well, and had gone to the bathroom.

Giles rubbed his eyes and yawned. But before he left, he looked at Willow with a worried look. "A couple of hours, Willow? Are you sure that's enough rest? Are you certain you are not driving yourself to hard?"

Willow smiled at him. "I am sure, Giles. It seems I need less sleep than I used to, these days. Ever since the hellmouth, I am more energetic than ever, more vital, so to say. Which is good, cause I don't think I could have coped otherwise."

"Yes, I see. Well, sleep well then Willow. Good day. "

"Sleep well, Giles."

Willow was left alone in the living room for a while, until she noticed Kennedy standing in the doorway. She was looking worriedly at Willow. "So, youre not going to tell him?"

"What should I tell him? "Nah, don't worry Giles, I havent really slept for a half year, and havent even needed a full night for the last year?" That would only lead to questions, none of which I could have answered. "

"Suit yourself, then. Are you at least coming to bed?"

"No, not today. I need to stay close on this hellmouth thing, and I must check on the slayers."

"Oh, ok then. See you later."

"Yeah. Later."

Kennedy waited, but Willow was at the window, looking out across the fields, where recruit slayers were doing basic forms. Then she lowered her head and went to the bedroom.

Willow looked at the fresh slayers. Somewhere within her mind, she could feel every single one of them. She felt them, one by one. Then she expanded, directing her attention to other slayers, some at central, then the ones further away. One by one, just touching them lightly, making sure they were there, and were ok. It was a good morning, she did not miss one.Some asleep, others in action in parts of the world where it was the middle of the night still. Some she could feel only partly, those were the ones she would need to communicate further with in a more direct manner. Some were only just _there, _unresponsive, foggy. The unwilling. There were no new, and she did not bother them further. There was one, a mass of confusion, pain and suffering. Hate. Willow made a note to herself to try to get trough to Dana again sometime during the day.

She spread herself out across the world, feeling all of the slayers at once. Every slayer in the world, exept the two of the line. They were hidden to her, and she to them. Pity.

Then there was something. She…fell quiet..so to say. Her mind listened, sorting out the den of normal activity, looking for something out of the ordinary. Something new. There had been…something. She remained nearly completely passive, only her mental "eye" scanning her own mind to pick it up. But it was gone. Willow let it go. There had been nothing alarming about it, no sense of danger. It was familiar, but extremely faint. She let her mind sink. A shift of mode, a different kind of eye. She felt the earth. And she felt its teeth. The thin, elastic veils between the world. And she felt the difference, almost untangible, the faint loss of elasticity. She tried to see beyond, to reveal what was happening, but there was nothing. Exept everything. Sometime she wasn't really sure what the difference was, or if there even was a difference, between the infinitely big and the infinitely small. She could feel the twisting and the stretching of the membranes, in a manner she could see the energies being generated and spreading out from them, and she knew that there were creatures everywhere feeding on the energies, using them and abusing them. They knew nothing yet, but it would not be long until they noticed. The hardening was quickening, and soon dark forces would notice that the hellmouths did not feed them as they used to. Most would suffer from it, and at first look that might make it seem like a good thing, but Willow knew that the elasticity was what had kept them from breaking long ago. Now the membranes were accumulating energy, more than they were meant to. Soon they would be to tense to keep the energy, and they would burst from their own momentum. All hell would truly break loose. Unless someone found a way to stop it.

There it was again! A faint feeling, like someone trying to reach her, but not quite getting through. She let go of the hellmouths, and tried to home in on the feeling. But it was gone.

She relaxed, and let her minds eye wonder among the sparks that were the minds of her slayers again. But there was nothing. Then she was distracted by the call of a voice that was not faint at all. "Mother!" it rang within her brain. She felt the call, and identified the caller. "Yes, Leonora?" she said, with warmth in her mental voice. "I need to speak with you, Mother"

Willow created with her imagination a landscape that she knew Leonora was comfortable with, and visualized herself and the slayer in it. Drew her in. Willow did not know exactly why, but she knew that while Leonora would recognize her face in her vision, she would not see the petite red-haired woman that was Willow, but the impressive white-haired being that all slayers knew as "Mother". It was the aspect Kennedy had seen as she performed the magic that had turned all potentials into slayers during the battle at the hellmouth in Sunnydale.

Willow looked at Leonora, and asked in a soft, yet full voice; "What can I do for you?"

Leila looked at Buffy with disappointment. "I almost felt something, but then I lost it again. This is useless Buffy, I guess I simply don't have the talent"

Buffy shook her head. "Talents not a part of it. The connection is a part of the bond between Willow and the slayers. If you could catch her attention, she would seek you out and take care of the rest."

"Why don't you do it yourself, if it is so easy?"

"I am not one of hers, so to say. I am what we have come to call "a slayer of the line". I became the slayer in the traditional way, the slayer before me dying. Only the slayers activated through Willows spell are connected with her."

"Well, have you heard about telephones?"

Buffy blushed. "Ah, yeah, well…One of the great things about cellphones is you don't have to remember any phonenumbers. One of the bad things about cellphones is you end up not remembering any phonenumbers, which spells trouble when you have to get out of town in a hurry, leaving your phone in the motelroom you didn't take the time to return to."

"Oh, so…no phone?"

"No phone. And I want contact with Willow, so youre it."

"But Im too tired, Buffy. Im way over bedtime, and I can barely keep my eyes focused, and much less take crash courses in telepathy."

Buffy got off her cot, and looked out the window at the scenery rushing by. They were hours on their way, on an express train headed for New Orleans, which would take them through Dibbley sometime the next night.

"Yeah, ok. You get some sleep, and well try again later. I want to give Willow a heads up that were coming in, and probably bringing company. "

"You think they will follow us?"

"Don't you? They seem to want you pretty bad. And lets face it; after years of hiding, youre now on a public transport, and one that doesn't really hide easily."

"Well, then I for one definetly votes for some sleep. And you should get some too. "

"Yeah, I guess."

Leila keeled over on her cot, and was almost instantly asleep. Buffy took longer. The last twelve hours had been taxing on her, not just physically. And more so on her father, she was perfectly aware of. Hearing about Buffy and her life, was one thing, and upsetting enough. Learning the truth about Dawn was a different matter entirely. What Buffy could not fathom, was his untouched trust in Glory, even after getting to know who and what she was, and Buffy had hidden nothing about her part in the events focusing on Dawn. Buffy herself did not trust Glory an inch. And she had no intentions of letting her near Dawn, but that would have to wait. For now Glory was part of the team, and nothing Buffy could do about it. As for Dawn, there was one piece of information Buffy had withheld from the others. It was unfair to her father, but she did not dare saying it in front of Glory. She would have to get him in private before telling him.

In a cabin further down the hall, Hank Summers was indeed having trouble digesting all the last nights news. Buffy was the slayer! Little Buffy. His little Buffy. And Dawn was a mass of green energy, and every memory he had of her was actually false. Hank didn't know if Buffy had realised it, but the time she gave for the spell that had introduced Dawn into their lives was well after the time he had last seen his youngest daughter. And Gloria! A god! And a hellgod at that. A being of unimaginable evil, who had spent all her energy and effort to kill Dawn, and everybody in the world while at it, simply to return home to exact her revenge in her hellish dimension. She had denied nothing.In fact she had, when asked if any of it was true, confirmed it. Hanks mind and feelings was in turmoil, though little of it showed outwards. He was a warlock, and controlling ones feelings was an essential part of the learning. Regardless of the strength and nature of the feelings. The concequences could be dire if not.

Another benefit from that control, was the ability to retain ones ability to rational thinking, and remembering the things of essence. One such thing was that while he might be tempted for a short moment to lash out in hatred towards his wife, upon learning of her past, he was able to remember that what she had been, she obviously was no more. She had cast a soul mirror with him! There was no faking that, not even for a god. _Especially_ not for a god, one might suspect. It was in the nature of the spell.The soul mirror was not a spell bound by the ideas of good and bad. It was merely a spell of the _real. _So Hank knew that Glorias intent was pure, and that she could be trusted. Else he would have known, through the spell itself.

For once, she was with him, alone, though she would have to leave soon to be with Miriam. She always stayed near Miriam, and shared her cabin even here. "How?" he asked her now. "How can a creature of hell change like you have?"

She told him.

The train hastened south as the day progressed, and within a few hours nearly all of the supernatural party on bord slept. And they dreamt. Hank Summers dreamt dreams of his daughters, and of himself introducing his new wife to them. It was a happy dream, until the part where Gloria got up from her chair at the dinner table and said, "sorry dear, but I really should be going" then cut off Dawns head with a steak knife, then jumped through a hole in the air into a flaming furnace yelling "honeys, Im home!"

Sam Zabuto was training with Leila in his Jamaica beach-home, when Kendra came up to him, shaking her head in disapproval. "Youre doing it all wrong" she said. "You will mess it up, again." Zabuto felt no real surprise at Kendras apperance, he just replied; "no, not this time. I know now that to save humanity, the slayer needs to keep her own. And to save the slayers humanity, I cannot sacrifice mine." But Kendra just shook her head again. "You will fail" she said. Then a thin red line appeared across her throat, and she fell face forward into the sand. From there she looked up at him with one eye filled with sand and death, and said; "Your skills are insufficient." Leila kneeled down beside Kendra. "Whos she?" she asked.

"Oh, just another parrot" he answered, and now lay in the sand before them a pitiful little bluefeathered parrot, with its feet glued to a stick. Leila lifted up the bird, and it stayed perfectly upright on its perch. "Whos is it?" she asked. "Mine." answered Zabuto.

Miriam never dreamt in the fashion of other people. When she did her version of sleep, her mind raced through the myriads of images, visions and sensations stored in her mind, exploring, forming new connections, watching the prophecies interacting and responding to each other. And as she lay there on the train-cabin cot, she shook inside with a sense of overwhelming urgency as one prophecy suddenly withered and died, making another spread into its place, and she screamed internally in fear as the visions of the still future were abruptly plunged into darkness and chaos. She wanted to wake up, but could not. Not yet.

She did not feel the little hand that grabbed hers, did not see the pretty face surrounded by curly hair that looked down on hers with worry all over it, and did not see Gloria Summers leave the cabin to wake up her husband and Sam Zabuto.

Buffy dreamt as she used to, fast paced, confusing sequenses of events real and imagined, from past and future. Dreams of the undead chasing her, or her chasing them. Dreams of her loved ones, that she had been away from so long. She dreamt of Angel. She was with him, and he was holding her. She was hugged close to his chest, and she was looking up at him in amazement. "Angel, you have a heartbeat." He was looking back down at her. "Just for now", he said."It will pass". They were in the middle of a bush of black roses, growing as she watched. "Uh, shouldn't we do something about this planty stuff all around?" she asked him.

" Sure" he said. "It will pass." Then she suddenly felt his heart go still. "Can we make it beat again?" she asked him in panic, and he answered her; " No. Some things don't pass."

He let her go and started away from her, and she called to him; "Can I come with you?"

He turned to her and said; "Of course, it is I that cant follow." Then he was gone, into the shadows of the ominuos rosebush. She was about to go after him, when an all to familiar voice shouted behind her; "Not yet, you daftie. This is a bloody dream, so youll probably end up chasing him through yer old kindergarden with a plastic cudgel, and itll be of no bloody use, will it. Well have to clear away this bloody mess first, yknow." Buffy turned around, feeling like all her blood had left her body.

She woke up, with a scream nearly on her lips, and took several seconds to remember where she was. Then she could finally hear the pounding of the rails, the relaxed sound of Leila breathing on her cot, and from the cabin next to her she could hear exited voices speaking semi-loudly. She got up and went to see what was going on.

Leila dreamt of the garden of a place where she had grown up, the daughter of the american ambassador to a country far away. She had loved this garden, and she had often used to dream of it, but not for several years now. It was a dream of unusual clarity, it was like she was really there, in a way that gave away the incomlpeteness of all other dreams. For one, she knew she was dreaming, yet it did not spoil the vision. Yet she was uneasy. There was something familiar about it, something she could not quite put her finger on. Then she realised she was not alone. A short distance away, under the orange tree where she had climbed many times in her time here, stood a figure. A lady, dressed all in white, with hair and skin also white and pale. It was not a large person, but yet she seemed to loom over everything else. The lady smiled. "Leila" she said. "You called me?" Leila fought the impulse to run, to force herself to awaken, and to push the dream from her memory, like she had done before. Instead she looked at the figure. "Are you the mother?" she asked. The lady tilted her head. "Yes, I am called mother by many like you. Strange that you should know. You have denied me before, and purged your memory of me."

"I also know that your name is Willow" replied Leila. Willow did not move, only a mild smile touched her face. "Who told you this? And who told you how to call to me"?

"Buffy Summers. She needed to contact you, and wanted to do it through me."

"Oh. Whats wrong with her telephone?"

Even as she answered; " She had to leave it", Leila had the thought that whatever idea she might have had about how a conversation with an etherial being in the middle of a dream-garden should be, the topic of mobile phones had never been part of it.

"Well," said the mother. "She knows better than to badger unwillings into acting as substitute phones, so I guess she has at least told you what you are?"

"I know what I am, mother, I just never knew before last night that there were other slayers in the world."

"Really? That's interesting. Yet it doesn't explain why Buffy would use you to contact me. She told me only yesterday morning she would be home in a couple of days."

"Actually, shell be home a little sooner, we hope. With some company. "

"I will be glad to see you here. But tell me, Leila, whats the emergency. I can feel your tension, and it is not just seeing me that causes it. "

Leila drew her breath deeply, more of a mental exercise than anything else, given the circumstances, and made ready to tell this magnificent being of her and her companions mission, and the new turn it had taken.

Buffy hurried to the cabin next door, to find her father, Gloria and Mr. Zabuto standing over Miriam, shaking her and calling to her. Miriam herself was on her cot, breathing fast and heavy, and violent tremors made her body shake all over. Little whimpering sounds were escaping her, and she was covered in sweat.

"Whats wrong?" Buffy asked.

Nobody had a glance to spare her, but her father answered her; "We don't know. This has never happened before."

"Are we under attack?"

Hank and Gloria both shook their heads. "No, we would have noticed if someone had tried a magical attack, and no one has been in here" said Gloria.

"Is she sick, then?"

"We don't know. Simple as that."

Buffy realised that she was the outsider in this group, and stood back. Mr Zabuto assured them all that Miriam was not running a fever, and if it was a seisure of some kind, it was not a powerful one. "There doesn't seem to be anything we can do, exept wait. Henry, Gloria, are you certain that there has been no attacks on us?"

"Actually" said Hank, "there has been several attempts to find us, and a couple of weaker attacks, but none of them have been anywhere close to dangerous to us. I am pretty sure nearly all the attacking magic-users have survived."

Gloria nodded. " True, and in addition there have been people waiting on the two last stops for us, so I guess they don't buy into our little trick buying tickets all the way to New Orleans."

"Damn!" Buffy wasn't really surprised, but it would have made things a lot easier if their pursuers would just have gone directly to New Orleans to wait for them there. "Do you think they will wait at every station now?"

"Probably" said Zabuto. "In our experience they are very resourceful, and with great attention to detail. They will leave very little to coincidence."

"What about Dibbley? This train isnt even supposed to stop there?"

"I doubt it will matter."

"Damn!" she said again. "I really need to call ahead."

"I can help you with that" came Leilas voice from behind Buffy. Buffy turned around and found Leila holding out a mobile telephone to her. "Ive already dialed the number, just press the green button, ok?" Buffys eyebrow lifted a little. "Huh?" Leila kept waving the telephone in her face, then took it and pressed the dial button. She could hear the phone in the other end ring, but only for a few seconds, before it was picked up. "Buffy?" said Willows voice.

At Slayer Central people were ripped from their daytime sleep by their phones ringing, summoning resident scoobies and Mr Harker to Willows quarters. They arrived, sleepy-eyed to find coffee already prepared, and Willow looking awake and calm as usual. Dawn arrived last, having come all the way from the dorms several hundred meters from the main building. As Willows living-room had become a kind of steady rally-point, over the last half year, people had sort of gravitated into spots and claimed it as their territory. Only during the month Willow and Kennedy had spent in Brazil had the quarters been left empty for any time, especially since it had coinceded with Xanders trip to Africa to try and recruit Oz back into their fold. Unsuccessfully so, as Oz took his commitment to teaching his following of werewolves to control their condition very seriously, and would not leave his calling. With even Andrew travelling all around the world most of the time, and Buffy not having even been to Central long enough to see the new slayers dorms built, much less having settled down there in any way, Dawn had pretty much been stuck alone with Giles the only face she knew. Not to say she hadnt made new friends among the slayers, but even among them, she was apart. And they knew it too, that however much they may have in common, they were different from her, and in ways neither could bridge. Oh, she trained with them sometimes, though their speed of progress in skill and strength couldn't be compared, and occacionally she would join them on field-trips to New Orleans or Baton Rouge to rip through the vampire communities, but she could never be one of them.

So entering the room to find so many old friends gathered made her happy, and not even the fact that the urgent summoning propably meant trouble could ruin that feeling. Trouble was an echo of home to Dawn, and in spite of being sure to have had enough of it for a lifetime, she was exited and feeling more confident than she had for months. The graveness of Willows expression gave halt to her eagerness, however, and she quickly found her place next to Willow on the couch. Over her lap she placed the beautiful Katana-sword the swordsmaster Hatsumi had crafted for her. In addition to its lightning-sharp blade and magnificent balance it held an extra surprise in its hilt, the better to suit someone in the line of vampire-dusting. Kennedy sported one very much like it, but designed to be perfect for her individually. Neither girls ever spent time around Willow without it.

"So, everybody is here!" said Willow. Everyone looked at her, knowing that this was not a social gathering.

"First, I think you should all know, I was called by Leonora this morning. The Rome operation is coming completely apart, and I have ordered everybody connected to close it down and come in. There can be no more doubles, and only the three regular slayer teams remain in the city now. We should remember though, that if not for Andrews quick reaction a little while ago, it would have blown up right there and then, and in a rather messier way than what happens now. Thank you, Andrew."

"Aww, that was nothing. I just had to get from L.A to Rome on the same plane as Angel, without him noticing me, then climb up the firestairs to the appartment only to get into a bath-robe before he knocked the door. Then I had to find a way to keep Angel from actually catching up with any of our players. I mean, one thing is if he saw that our girl was not Buffy, that could be solved easily just by our boy saying that no it is not Buffy. However, he would have become suspicious when he realised that our Immortal was not the Immortal. Luckily he was distracted enough by the other parts in the mess that we pulled it off. It was a close call, however, when he came to the appartment while both Leonora and Enid were both there. I feel I was quite ingenious when I just took them by their arms and pretended they were my dates."

"Yes, you did well, Andrew. Unfortunately it seems our pretend Immortal blew it by being very drunk and extremely mortal in one of the Immortals favorite clubs while balancing on the gallery rails. Next time, try not to hire idiots for impersonation jobs, will you?"

"Yes, mam."

"Don't call me mam."

"Yes, Willow."

"Thank you. So, no one is going to believe that you and Buffy lives in Rome for much longer, Dawn. This means that Buffys roaming days are over. However, I believe that we have enough well trained slayers to keep her safe even in less controlled circumstances. Or, at least, as safe as any other slayer. Slaying is never safe."

Dawn nodded. So, there was no longer any slayers in Rome pretending to be her and Buffy. Too bad, really. She had seen the grades being logged in her name, and found herself wishing she could have gone through junior high with a stand-in as well.

"So, to my next point of the day. As I said, Buffys roaming days seem to be coming to a close, therefore its quite lucky that shes actually coming in tonight, on the express train. "

Dawn could not help herself exclaiming an loud whoop, and also Xander and Giles lit up.

"Unfortunately, she seems to be bringing along some trouble, and right here to our doorstep. She told me her reasons however, and they were very good. I managed just a while ago to identify and contact an unwilling that has been trying to contact me all morning. I was intrigued by this, and what I found when I managed to enter her dreams was something else, I tell you. I found a trained and operable slayer, who until last night believed she was in fact the only slayer in existance. But last night she met Buffy, who is now travelling with her and her Watcher."

Gileshead flew up. "Who would this watcher be? he asked. Willow smiled. "It appears that this slayer, Leila, has been trained in hiding by Mr Sam Zabuto."

"Kendras Watcher?" Now Xanders interest had been piqued as well. He had been in the room when Kendra died, the same had Giles and Willow. Dawn had only just met Kendra a couple of times, and wasn't really sure if she liked her at all, to be honest.

"Yes." Willow went on. "And now it appears they are trying to get to safety someone very special, and very important. Central is designed specially to be just that, so Buffy decided this was the place to bring her." Willows eyes went to Mr. Harker. " Leila says the woman they bring is a Sekiraghi, the last of her kind." Mr Harker nearly lost his rigid composure, and even let out a gasp. He quickly caught up to himself, but his eyes still gave witness to his exitement. "Good Lord, thats amazing, I thought the Sekiraghi were extinct centuries ago!"

"It appears that one still lives, and as I said, she is coming here. But there is more. Inside the prophecy vault, there is a brand new prophecy. And someone out there is very determined to see it go away. Which means that as soon as Buffy and her company gets off that train into open terrain, there will be…ah…lets just say there will be trouble. Kennedy, I will want you on that station tonight with as many trained slayers as you can find."

Kennedy nodded. This was Willow the Boss talking, not Willow the pillowfriend. Kennedy knew the difference, especially as the former had become nearly non-existent lately.

But Dawn raised her voice in protest. "Why cant I go!" she objected. " I can do the job just as good as she can, and anyway, Buffy is my sister!"

"No, you will stay here with me."

"That's not fair!"

"Perhaps not, but that's not the issue here. Actually I meant to send you, but Buffy said no."

"But..but Buffy doesn't know…she hasn't seen…"

"That's not the point Dawn, the point is there is someone else in that party which Buffy doesn't want anywhere near you, and until we know more, I agree with her. So will you. "

"Who?"

"Glory!"

Silence fell on the room. Dawn felt like all the blood had been drained from her body. Glory, the god of hell, who had killed people by the dozens to find her, and to drain her of all her blood to open every hellgate in existance, just to return to her own hell-dimension. Glory, who had stolen Taras mind and left her a shadow of a human-being for weeks until they managed to restore it. Glorificus, who had caused the carnage which had prompted Buffy to jump to death in Dawns place!

It was Giles, however, who broke the silence. "No," he said. "No, that is simply not possible, Glory is dead!"

Xander looked at him. "Well, Buffy beat her pretty much to a pulp, that is true, but I never thought that was enough to kill her. I don't think Buffy believed that either."

"Not Buffy." said Giles. "And not Glory. Ben. I killed him. Suffocated him. He was dead. _She_ was dead, with him."

Willow looked at him. This was new to her, to everyone but Giles, in fact.

"It seems not" said Willow. "Glory is apperantly very alive, and claiming to be on the side with the good guys this time. Buffy doesn't trust her though, and will refuse her to enter the estate."

"Does Mr Zabuto know who she is?" said Giles with disbelief still in his eyes.

"Yes, Buffy told them all about her. They still trust her even so. It seem Glory and a warlock also in their party set up a soul mirror to protect the Sekiraghi while they were in hiding."

Both Giles and Mr Harkers eyes widened. "A soul mirror?!" Giles really could not hide his shock this time. "Glory cast a soul mirror?"

"So Buffy says. The warlock vouches for her. She seems to trust him, though she doesn't tell me why. Now, if they really cast a soul mirror, I suppose that would settle the issue on her trustworthyness beyond question, what we need to know is whether the spell is real, and not just something else, made to appear it for the uninitiated."

Xander raised his hand "Uh…perhaps you could clear this up, for us uninitiated…I mean. Exactly _how_ should this spell make Glory someone we should trust with as much as the tip of our little fingers?"

"Uh, Giles…could you explain?"

"Oh, certainly. You see, Xander, the soul mirror is actually an extremely simple spell, requiring very little use of magical power on behalf of the caster. Nevertheless it is known as one of the most dangerous spells ever invented. And cruel, most often."

"Aha, so it is exactly the kind of thing we could expect from her, then?"

"Really not. It so happens that what the soul mirror does, well, its name explains it quite well. It s a mirror spell, but it doesn't reflect spells like so many other mirror spells do. Instead, if anyone tries to work magic upon somebody affected with the spell, it reflects their _intentions_ back onto themselves. Thrice. "

"Oh, so, its a good spell then?"

"It is beyond good or evil. Its a vessel of thruth ,simple as that. It reads intentions without fail, and doesn't care about reasons."

"But I still don't get it. Glory may have cast the spell on this person, but it doesn't mean she has tried anything later, has it? So she might not have come in touch with it afterwards."

Now Willow broke in. "Xander, when someone casts a spell, their person, their very being holds the spell inside of them for a while after it has taken effect. Perhaps just a fraction of a split second, but with a spell as singular as the soul mirror, that is enough. If there had been any shadow of ill intent in Glory as she cast the spell, it would have struck back upon her, and not just threefold, but thousandfold. Just to give you an inkling, Xander, I would not have dared cast one, even on you."

"Oh….." Xander looked at the woman who had been his best friend for nearly twenty years.

"You see…."

"You had me at "inkling" Willow. When you guys say "inkling", it always means "huge amounts of trouble", right? "

"But can we be sure Glory is vulnerable to this?" Dawn wondered, her voice was thick with rage and fear. "She is a god, after all."

"Well, as I said, it takes very little actual use of power to set up and cast the spell. That is because it uses the attackers own power to strike back. All of it. So, the consequenses become graver the more powerful the attacker, not lighter. We don't know how much power Glory has left, she was weakening even as we fought her, but I have no doubt she remains formidable."

Giles explained. "If you want to destroy a malevolent god, the soul mirror is your way. If you dare set it up."

"So, its like,…"do onto others" with an attitude?"

"Good heavens, Xander, if anybody should ever write a "Magic for dummies"-manual, I will have them call you for consulting. Yes, in fact the spell have on occacions been called "the golden spell", and it does sort of work like the golden rule made descriptive rather than normative."

"So, what do we do when she gets here. Do we let her in?"

"I really think that will have to be Dawns call. As much as we all hate her, I think she has the most reason, don't you think?"

Everybody looked at Dawn who was drenched in fear and misery just by the thought of seeing her mortal enemy again. "I…I… this spell, can we be sure its real? And not just something with a similar effect, but without being…real?"

"Of course they could have faked something to appear like the soul mirror, but it shouldn't be hard to spot once they are in sight." said Willow. Henrietta and her witches will be going along, just to make sure, and to help out against any hostile magic. Kennedy, you will gather the slayers you want with you and prepare to head into Dibbley station. Giles, I think you should go with them, you are after all Buffys watcher, but you will stay here until they leave. There is one more matter to deal with, and for that I need you here, and you as well Mr. Harker."

"Of course, Willow"

Dawn looked at Giles, and realised that a couple of years ago this situation would have been unthinkable. Back then, when something needed doing, Giles would have been the one everyone looked to for instructions and orders. Giles would have been their refuge and comfort in hard times. Now, Willow gave out orders all around with a natural authority that nobody questioned. Dawn suspected that if Willow applied just a little pressure, even Faith would jump to her bidding. Of course, Willow never did. She relied on Robin to remind Faith of her place, and it was a strategy that seemed to work out well. There had been no atrocities reported at all for the last year, though they operated pretty much like free agents and were seldom heard from.

Kennedy quickly went to collect her stuff, and was just ready to leave the room when Willow told her to stop just a second. "I think youd better be prepared for the worst" she said, and a waving motion of her hand caused a hidden hatch in the wall slide open. The seriousness of the situation blossomed in the mind of everyone present as the sliding door reveiled the curved lines and shiny metal of the axe of the slayers, the object of immense power that Willow had used to shape the spell that released the latent power in all the potentials at the hellmouth. Kennedy hesitated for a second, and then again, before a nod from Willow convinced her to remove the axe from its creche and bring it with her.

Willow waited until the door had closed behind Kennedy, then turned towards those that remained. "And now", she said, her voice showing signs of quivering, "on to the main event of the evening. So far, anyway."

Nobody spoke, even Andrew could see that Willows resolve had weakened.

"As you remember, I told you that the Sekiraghi Buffy is travelling holds a brand new prophecy. Well, when I spoke to Buffy on the phone, she gave me the prophecy, so that we could get to work on it." She looked at her silent audience, gathering the courage and calm to go on. The two watchers, and Mr Harker in particular, looked extremely eager, but neither was dense enough to interrupt Willow.

"Why she did that became obvious immediately, as the prophecy mentions not only Buffy, but also Glory, and…" Willow took a long breath, trying hard to keep her voice from shaking as she went on; " I am pretty sure it holds a message about me, as well." She fell silent, unable to go on. As always, when things got hard to deal with, her eyes searched out Xanders. His one dark eye gave away the worry that he felt. "Willow, are you alright?" he asked. "What..whats in this prophecy to have you so worked up?"

"I…I think Id just better show you. From the coffee table she picked up a remote control and activated the profoundly non-magical image-projector in the ceiling. The wall lit up with a page of writing, and Dawn, Xander, Andrew, Giles and Harker got their first look at the new prophecy. There was a collective gasp, then a few seconds of complete silence. "Oh, goodness!" exclaimed Mr Harker then. " It….its Zchimitad…and it looks complete!"

Xander however, had despair in his voice; "Oh, god, Willow…..no! Oh, Willow…no no no!"

Dawn saw what Xander did, but the shock did not allow her to speak. Giles had only one thing to say; " Oh dear!" His glasses came off and were treated to a long, hard polishing. Then he went on; " I…Im sure….perhaps it doesn't mean what it seems…..at first glance?"

Dawn looked at the writing on the wall. As far as she could tell, there was no two ways about it. All of it was too…. She read it all over again, uncouncously mouthing the words with her lips:

_The choice must be made by the twice dead bane of dead_

_The fullness and the emptiness, or emptiness end. _

_When the twofaced god takes stand_

_The veiled one is the key_

_Mother! Cry no more for your childrens lives_

_Cry for your death_

_Your time to choose has passed_

_Call the wayward guide, the lost companion,first friend._

_Divide no more your souls and know her names_

_The veiled one is the key._

_When the fangs of the earth_

_freeze and die_

_The time has come to serve once more_

_For those that have had their rest._

_And when life nor death yields no treadbare path_

_The veil becomes the key._

_As the once lost day is lost, forever._

_the dark bramble burns and withers._

_Let not the choice be taken from your hands_

_Let not the dark soul perish_

_The veiled one is the key. _

Willow looked at Giles, and echoed Dawns thought; "It seems quite unambigous to me. _Mother, cry for your death_, what else could it mean? Im going to die, Giles! And do you see that part there?; _When the fangs of the earth freeze and die. _Thats now, Giles! The hellmouths, this prophecy is connected to the brittling of the membranes, and Im going to die. I just have to call for some guide that seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way before I kick it!" Willow was quickly dissolving into tears. But Giles did not let up easily. "Its prophecy, Willow, they are twitchy at best, and often misleading if you are too quick to jump to conclusions. You do remember the prophecy about Buffys death, don't you? It went down as foresaid, and yet…"

Willow took the effort to steady her voice and regain her composure. "Yes, I see what you mean. It doesn't matter. Crying about it wont change anything anyway, will it?" She looked up at Giles, and from the couch Dawn realised that things hadnt changed as much as she thought. In the end, Rupert Giles was still the rock that the strong would lean to when strong was not enough. Not because he was stronger, but because he was solid. He was _the real thing. _Now he looked at Willow with an ocean of empathy in his eyes as he quietly said; " No, it will not."

Willow took a deep breath, confidence returning to her. "Anyway, call me selfish, but I would rather die to prevent evil from taking over the world, than live in a world where it has."

Dawn let the words sink in. She understood, and from deep in her mind came the realisation that she also agreed completely. So would Buffy, she knew. Buffy, after all, had proved that she meant it. Twice.

"Ok" said Willow. "Lets try to keep our focus, shall we? Mr Harker, what can you tell us about the prophecy? Apart from the obvious, of course?"

"Well…" Harker started. He did not seem to have noticed the distraction at all, being completely focused on the prophecy on the wall. " Its rather unusual, in many ways, even excluding the "obvious", like being a complete and intelligeble piece of the veiled one. The most conspicous being that instead of grand resitations of events to come, this looks more like a message to specific subjects. Now, prophecy generally does tend to be rather cryptic to the random eye, but sometimes all it needs to uncover the meaning is small pieces of information, or a better insight into the big picture. From what I hear from you, this could likely be the case here."

Giles nodded in agreement. "Yes, look for example at the first sentence. Only us here would recognise immediately that it refers to Buffy. Ah.. it does, doesn't it, Willow?"

"So she said. And not just from reading it, apparently the Sekiraghi said the prophecy reacted to her precence near the vault."

"And the part about the "mother", well, you said so yourself, Willow. There has been tears. Lots of tears, when slayers die."

Willow nodded.

"Now, the rest still seems fairly cryptic to me, but Im sure that if we try to analyze it thoroughly, and apply our imaginations to it, we can work out more over the next days, don't you think?"

The rest, Willow excluded, looked at each other with exaperation.

"First" Giles continued, " I feel we should look into this guide thing, and maybe search through the literature to find some more clues to this "veiled one". Mr. Harker, that would be your speciality, right? With this new information to work with, do you think….."

"Uuhm…, excuse me, Giles?" Xander cut Giles off in mid-sentence.

"Not now, Xander.."

"Well, its just that I think I might save us all some trouble when it comes to the "veiled one", business."

"Really, Xander? Please share, will you?"

"Uh, well..yeah…I cant really be sure, of course…but…can everybody here who is a key raise their hand?"

Dawn felt the world stop, and she turned cold as ice all over. Like in slow motion she could see everybodys eyes turn towards her, Mr Harker more following the others looks than turning on his own. There had been no need to tell him more about Dawn than what he knew, he wouldn't be familiar with Dawns personal history.But everybody else knew. That Dawn was a key to dimensions given human form and hidden among humans to protect. To protect the world. That they had imposed the memory of her on all whos mind touched the sphere of existance around her. Dawns heart was racing. "No….no, youre wrong!" she gasped. " I…Im not a key anymore! Or..at least I don't fit any doors any longer. The stars….."

Giles looked at her. " Xander could be on to something here" he said. "You might not be useful as a key anymore, but if you are the veiled one, it would be a good move to ensure that only the few who knew would realise it. And a good measure of identification."

"Or it could simply be all that the prophet was able to gather from his vision" Willow added. "The term "veiled one" does after all imply that we are talking about something that has been hidden, or covered up, even to those with prophetic abilities."

"But I don't want to be veiled! Don't you think Ive been enough?!"

"Allright, we will let the matter of the veiled one lie for a while, and concentrate on this guide." Giles once again stepped in to let tempers cool down. "Now, does this prophecy give any clue as to who it might be? Harker?"

" Well, its place in the text suggests it is directed to the "mother", which would be you, mistress Willow. It mentions a "lost companion", and "first friend". So if you have any suggestions as to who this might point to, that might help us."

"Do you think it could be me?" Xander suggested. "Us having been friends since kindergarten, and all?"

Willow took a moment thinking it over. "No, I don't think so. First of all, there is very little "lost" about you, and secondly, I regret to say that as long as we may go back, you were not my first friend."

"Ooh, Willow, be careful now, don't hurt my feelings."

"Don't worry Xander, I did not dally behind your little back. When I met you, it was as an older and wiser girl of five, having been taught the lessons of life the hard way.My shame is to report that _my_ first friend was Cordelia. "

"Whoa, now _that's_ a secret well kept. Neither you or Cordy ever told me _that._"

"Some things are best left unspoken of, and anyway, _she_ would never let me play with her dolls, and _I_ refused to be the maid when we played house, and that pretty much set the standard for our relations from then on. "

"Uhm..does this mean that we have to call Cordelia here?" wondered Dawn.

" I hope not" Andrew ended his uncharacteristic bout of keeping his mouth shut." She was always mean to me in school."

Giles was next; " Ahm, when you think about it, the idea does have some merit to it. Remember, Cordelia has been acting as a guide of sort for Angel for some years now. It could be that her visions could be helpful for us, to figure out what all this means, and what to do about it. The problem is, of course, last I heard, Cordelia was in a coma."

"Actually, Giles; your info is a tad outdated. Cordelia is dead."

"Oh dear. Are you sure Xander?"

"Yeah. I used to call her hospital once a week, and one day they told me she had simply passed away."

"Oh dear" Giles said again. "So, I guess that line of thought was a…sorry…dead end?"

"We should certainly hope so" said Willow. "Because if she was our guide, were in trouble. Any other suggestions?"

There was silence and a sensation of all-round hopelessness in the room. No one spoke, until Giles suddenly looked like he had had a revelation. " There is one thing….sort of a longshot, I admit, but it deserves concidering."

" And that would be?"

"Uhm, during the time I spent in England a couple of years ago, before I had to turn my attention to collecting the potentials, I decided to look deeper into Watcher lore, and the history and nature of the slayer. In a library belonging to the council I came across some writings I had never encountered before. They were concidered apocryphical, so to say, in watcher circles, and I am not even sure the Council was aware of their existance. They contained stories and legends of slayers through the ages, and among them were some claiming to be accounts of the life of the first slayer.

Now, chances are that many of these tales were simply made up in later ages, but one of them does mention the first slayer having a friend, a companion. "

"Her watcher?" suggested Xander.

"No, the first had no watcher. The dark men who created her only later realised that to keep the slayer in line, they had to have someone to train her, and command her. No, this scroll definetly talked of a friend. "

"But whats this got to do with us? The first slayer is long dead, isnt she?"

"Yes, but it occurs to me that the power Willow wielded at the hellmouth, and still controls even today, is very closely linked to the deepest power of the slayer. You could say, that in releasing what lay latent in the axe, Willow took on an aspect of the slayers power. And perhaps through that power, she could call on this "first friend"?

"So instead of calling weeks-dead Cordy, we call a millenia dead unknown someone-who-may-or-may-not-have-existed?"

"Well, actually Xander, the text indicates that this friend might not have been entirely….human…. There are hints that suggests that it was more of a supernatural being. And that could mean that the being could be summoned through a magical ritual, involving the power of the slayer. "

"Does this "lost companion" come with a name?"

"There was one passage that laid claim to giving one, yes. One single line that gave the companions name as " Aleahenceariandies". Its occurrence is unique in watcher lore, and as far as I know, completely unheard of elsewhere. "

"Does it come with a handy "how to summon"-manual?

"I am afraid not. We could try some of the basic demon summoning rituals, they might help. Or perhaps better a spirit-call, what do you think Willow?"

Willow had a far-eyed expression on her face, and at first she did not respond to Giles question, but then she turned to him abruptly. "Yes!" she said.

"Uhh….excuse me?"

"Yes, Aleahenceariandies is the one. I can feel it clearly. But she is not in this world. She cannot reach it."

"How can you tell?" asked Xander.

"As Giles said, she seems somehow to be connected to the slayers. Something in me, in the magic I wield, remembers her. It knew her name as you spoke it. And if she had been in this world, I could have called her the same way I communicate with my slayers. "

"But she is not?"

"No. She is elsewhere, and cannot enter this world without help."

"What kind of help?"

Willow closed her eyes, and stood silent for a while. Then she spoke again; "The gate is locked. To open it, we need to use the key."

"What?! No, you cant do that!" yelled Dawn and got to her feet. " I….I don't work, and..and..the stars are all wrong! "

They all looked at her in shock. "No! You don't get to cut me up!" she shouted, and started backing into the room. "And..and who knows what else might come through!"

Giles started towards her. "Dawn, no one is going to cut you, that is out of the question. I would rather see the world end. Relax, we will find another way."

Then Willow spoke up again. " I don't think we need to do any cutting. I think there _is_ another way." Something in her voice made them all turn towards her. Willows eyes where white, and there was like an aura of light around her that all could see, though not with their material eyes. " When I look at you now, Dawn, I see that you are more than we thought. You _are_ the key, and not even Glory ever knew what you can do. Not really. " The glow faded, and Willows eyes returned to their normal coulor. But they did not turn from Dawn. "I think", she said, " that Glory missed something vital when she tried to open the gates. She was all about force, and power. Your human form has given you abilities that she did not foresee, could not fathom. She tried to open every gateway into other worlds in existence, and for that she needed all of the energy in the key to be spent at once, and all gravitational influence between the worlds needed to be optimal to ease the passage. But that is not required for the key to work. You, Dawn, can direct your energy, to unlock the gates, as long as you do it one at a time. "

Dawn had stopped backing away. "You…you…think so?" she said, her voice trembelling.

"Yes, I do."

"But…but….why didn't she just ask me, then? I could have done it for her, and we would be rid of her."

" I guess the idea of obtaining the consent of a mere tool never crossed her mind. And don't forget, to her, everyone was either a tool or an obstacle to be removed."

"That still doesn't explain why she needed to open all those portals, when she could have just made do with the one." said Giles.

"As I said, she probably didn't know any other way. It suited her way too well for her to bother looking into the details."

"Or perhaps she simply didn't know which portal to open" Xander commented.

"That could be it, but it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"Guess not. "

"The point is, Dawn, that I think I can direct exactly how to open the right portal, as long as you work with me. We have to work on the practical application, but I think the principles of it is fairly straightforward"

"Oh…ok…if we have to. Uhh…why do we have to do this?"

"Well, its obviously connected somehow to the hellmouths, and hellmouths are never good. What it really means, I have no idea. I guess that is why we need a guide."

Xander jumped to his feet, and clapped his hands once. "Ok" he said. "Lets call this guide-being then, and get on with it."

"Uhm..I really dont think we should rush into this, its...uh...not something lightly undertaken." Giles protested."Say we manage to open the correct gate, we dont know, as Dawn pointed out, what could be behind it. Other than the guide, I mean."

"Well, as I said, we will have to work on the details, but..." Willow was interrupted by an exclamation from Xander who was standing at the window. "Whoa! Will, your girlfriend doesnt kid around, does she?"

Everybody got up, and looked out the window. "Good heavens!" said Giles. Dawn gaped. "We didnt bring _that_ many slayers into the hellmouth!"

"Well, Buffyll feel welcome, for sure, so welcome I think we will have to wipe the memories of half the Dibbley population afterwards."

The place out front of the manor was crawling with slayers. They moved in pairs, as had become the standard, one trained slayer with experience, and one novice learner. Andrews idea, but very well recieved among the rest of the team, and the slayers. They had, however, at last managed to quell his vigorus insistance that the novices should be called "Padawan", and gone for "student" instead.

Now, there was nearly thirty pairs milling around, getting ready to go to Dibbley station. In addition, a coven of twelve witches and warlocks was preparing for departure. "Youd better get ready, Giles" said Willow. She could see two buses driving up from the garages, to take the slayers to town. "Well, Ill be off then. dont do anything rash, please." said Giles and headed for the door. "Wouldnt dream of it" Willow replied. "Be careful, this could get dangerous."

The door closed behind Giles. Willow turned towards Dawn. "So, shall we get summony then?"


	4. Chapter 4

_Note from the author: Well, this once again took longer than expected, and once again, I have divided the chapter in two. My original chapter 3 has now turned into 3,4 and 5. I say thanks to those who have reviewed the story, and begs from everybody: review, review, review...! Id like viewpoints on the writing and language as well as just the story. _

Chapter 4

A distance further north,as late afternoon threatened to turn into early evening, the train trundeled on towards Dibbley . In one small sleeping compartment, Buffy and the others were happy to see Miriam starting to come to. Her eyes opened, she was dazed and did not really look well, but she was awake. "Hey, are you alright?" Gloria asked softly, stroking Miriams hair gently. Buffy had been watching her for the last hours, trying to figure out why her bedside manner seemed so familiar. The answer had come to her a while before, much too obvious for comfort. She acted like Ben! Glory was a mystery. And this new revelation only served to deepen it further. And where _was_ Ben? Her father clearly had known nothing about her double nature, meaning that he did not know that his wife had used to spend half the time as a man. Was he completely subdued? Had Glory conquered completely? What had happened? One thing was for sure, this person sitting by Miriams bed for hours on end, holding her hand and stroking her hair, showed very little in common with the being Buffy had met years before.

Miriam was responding now. She turned her head towards them, and tried to speak. "It died...went dark...everything...nothing... it has begun." Mr Zabuto leaned forward. "What has begun? What happened?" Miriam took a couple of deep breaths, then spoke again, stronger and clearer. " The Shanshu prophecy...it suddenly just went dark, died. It left a void...like a...vacuum. Its thrown everything off, everything into chaos. Nothing remains...exept the Zchimitad. It has begun, and we must be quick." There was a moment of silence... then Hank; "What is a Shanshu-prophecy?" Buffy felt her mind go numb, and her stomach felt like it had been dropped from a tall building. Oh, she knew what the Shanshu-prophecy was. And _who_. But she kept quiet. It was Mr Zabuto who answered her father. "The Shanshu-prophecy talks of a champion, a vampire with a soul, who will play part in the final apocalypse, and if it turns out right, will be given back its mortality and humanity."

"And this prophecy is dead, you say. What does that mean. And...a vampire with a soul? Whats that supposed to mean?"

"I have heard of this "vampire with a soul" before, but nothing tangible. There has been mention of a name, but too unlikely to be concidered." said Zabuto.

Buffy finally found it prudent to speak up; "You mean Angel?"

Mr Zabuto turned to her. "That is the name I heard.Do you know anything about this...story?"

"I know plenty. But I dont know what this means, the Shanshu-prophecy "dying"? How does a prophecy die?Miriam?"

"It is like...it just winked out. It doesnt exist anymore. I..I cannot explain much better. And it...it has caused terrible chaos, and all prophecy beyond has gone silent, I cannot reach them. And more.. it caused another part of the Zchimitad to alight."

"Which part?"

_"As the once lost day is lost, forever." _I dont know what it means.

Buffy went cold again. "_the once lost day_". "I know what it means. It means the Shanshu-prophecy is dead. Miriam, this whole endoftheworldiness, its now, isnt it? This hasnt just _begun_, this is _happening, _right now, right?"

"Yes".

"Oh my. "_The fangs of the earth_".This is hellmouth business, meaning bad business. And _fangs _, plural. Plenty bad business. Can we make this train go faster?"

"Hellmouths? I dont get it, Buffy." Hank said. "How do we know this is about hellmouths?"

"Something Willow told me once. She said the hellmouths are the "teeth of the earth". Shes a witch, she could feel them."

"But the prophecy says the _fangs _will "freeze and die". If its about hellmouths, how can that be bad?"

"Well,_ Ive _yet to come across a prophecy that goes "the hellmouths are all going to die and go away, and everything will be hugs and puppies for the rest of eternity.

In my experience prophecies always mean "end of the world, demons will rule, lots of hey-nonny-.nonny-and blood all over the place and dont make any plans for next week."

"Oh."

"She does have a point" said mr Zabuto. "What I want to know, is what this has to do with this "vampire with a soul". Who is this "Angel"?"

"Does the name Angelus ring any of your watcher bells?"

Mr Zabutos eyebrows flew up in surprise. "Angelus!? _The demon with the face of an_...angel?"

"Yep"

"Hardly my choice for a champion. As far as I can remember, all my sources speak of him as the meanest, most wicked creature ever to walk the earth."

"He has a soul now. That is what the Shanshu-prophecy was all about. Atonement, payback, call it what you will. Angel pays for the evil of the demon Angelus."

"But how can a vampire get a soul"?

"I personally know about two ways. There could be dozens for all I know."

"And youve met this...Angel"?

"You could say that."

"And...where is he now?"

"In L.A. i guess. Hes head of Wolfram & Hart...that doesnt speak to well for him...does it?"

"Championwise? Not really." said Hank.

"Well, there has been some doubt as to his dedication lately, the Council doesnt trust him."

"But what, then, has he to do with the Zchimitad?"

"I dont know...something, I guess..But if the Shanshu is gone, couldnt that mean that..hes... dead? Like in...gone?"

"It could. But it still doesnt make any sense why it should be in the Zchimitad-prophecy, it has to have relevance in _some_ way?"

"Wait a minute" said Zabuto. "Buffy, was this "Angel" with you when you first...died..?"

"Yes. He was the first to reach me, and pull me out of the water. My friend Xander recusitated me."

" There is a passage in the Tenchili-codex, dealing with the slayer, saying " ..and the slayer shall die, and the breath of the dark soul holds no life..." The Tenchili-codex exists only in fragments, so we dont really know what context to put it in. But it does mention the Master, that is how I remembered it. Miriam, do you have the Tenchili?"

"Yes, I have it. Not much though, it was never anything much more than a fragment in the first place. The part you have, is pretty much it, before it disintegrates into Zchimitad. We dont usually keep Zchimitad, it tends to drive Sekhiragi as mad as the prophets themselves. However, the Pergamum Codex runs nearly paralell, and is prefered."

"Pergamum Codex? No copies exist, how can it be "prefered". No one alive has seen it." protested Zabuto.

"You mean like; "The anointed one shall rise, and the Master shall be all gibbety about it and dance the dance of joy while the slayer shall not know him and hes a kid and all cutiepie, then the master will rise and the slayer will die, yadayadayada? In read it. Good on accuracy, missing the big picture. No dark soul in it, though."

Zabuto looked dumbfounded at Buffy. "You _read _the Pergamum Codex?!"

"Yeah. So, what does this mean?"

"Means your vamp is our dark soul, most likely." said Glory.

"Oh, _great_! So Angel is in some kind of danger, we need to rescue him, and is therefore going in the complete wrong direction. Can we turn this train around?"

"Well be in Dibbley in just a short while." said Zabuto. "First well need to get off this train alive, then take it from there. Are you sure well be safe with your friends?"

"Safer than anywhere in the world, I guess."

Buffy sighed in resignation. "Fine. Well go to Central, try to figure out what all this means, and try to warn Angel somehow. But first, I need to talk with you, dad. In private. Hank looked at Miriam, who seemed to be improving, then to Glory and Mr Zabuto. Zabuto nodded, and Hank got up and followed her to the cabin he shared with his watcher.

"Buffy, is this true? Have you been...friends..with a vampire?"

"Yeah. Good friends. You met him once, you know."

"_I _met him!? When?"

"At the Bronze, one time you came to pick me up. Before you stopped. But thats not what I need to talk to you about."

"Then what?"

"Its about Dawn. There is one more thing you should know."

"Tell me. You said she was allright?"

"Dawn is fine. Exept...there is one thing you should know before you meet her. Shes different from last time you met her."

"Did I ever really meet her in the first place?"

"Uh...I guess not. But you know her, and remember her, dont you?"

"Yes, I remember."

"Go with that then, everybody else does. Well, anyway, after the hellmouth, we were forced to look a little deeper into the spell that made her. You see, Dawns body, and her mind, were created basically from aspects of, well, me. Her genetics, her brain, are pretty much identical with mine, only with a twist to them. She was put close to me, made part of my life, so that I, the Slayer, would protect the key with my life."

"Sounds like a sound idea"

"At first glance,yes. The plan would have one glitch, though. Cause, what would happen once I had done that? Protected her with my life, I mean. Shed be as unprotected as ever."

Hank said nothing, waiting for Buffy to go on.

"Well, it seemed the monks had had the same thought, and made a backup plan. You see, Dawn, as she is now, is a real human being, flesh and bone, and with a mind completely of her own. A real human, with a real human soul..."

"Which means?"

"Its just that..., you can copy a persons genes, their body cells and make a body from it,

but it wouldnt make a _person_. To get that, you need a soul. And as far as we can tell, the monks made a soul for her as well. Once again, they copied mine. And my soul is not just

any soul."

"Oh god, I think I might see where you are going. So, just get to it, will you?"

"Yes. Dad, Dawn is a slayer. And more than that, with her being basically a blur of energy given form, she is probably the strongest, most powerful Slayer in history."

"Wow."

"Oh yeah. Thats pretty much what I said when she told me. She didnt even tell me for a couple of weeks, you know. I rather freaked out. They tell me shes learning so quickly the other Slayers cant begin to keep up with her. And her strength...well...she was stronger than me already when I left, what she is now I cant imagine."

Hank was silent, and Buffy was certain that if he had worn glasses he would be polishing them vehemenently right then. He _was_ turning into a watcher, for sure.

"Dad? Are you going to say anything?"

"Yeah. Its just...I thought I had gotten my fill of news for the week. And now this."

"Its a lot, I understand."

" So, being a Slayer is a matter of the soul, huh?"

"Seems like it. It doesnt seem to run in families, anyway. Something had to be a factor, Willow says it is the soul. A Slayers soul is different, from birth. So, they not only made Dawn a potential Slayer, they made her next in line. That plan had a flaw as well, of course."

"Oh? What flaw."

"Even if I had died, she still wouldnt have become Slayer. Actually, I did die, and she did not become Slayer. Seems the monks hadnt reckoned with the fact that there was two slayers in the world even then. The line passed trough Faith, not me."

"Oh.. and all this was...was because of Gloria?"

"Yes. She was looking for Dawn, though she did not know it until the end, to open the gates to hell. She was the reason the monks hid the key. She nearly made it too. Dawn would have died that night had I not taken her place. My blood, my identical genes, satisfied the hellgate. It closed."

"Oh" Hank said again. "But now, Dawn is a Slayer?"

"Yes. But she mostly stays at Central, as part of Willows personal bodyguard."

"Why does Willow need a bodyguard?"

"She is the leader, the head of the organization. She commands the Slayers, and through Giles, the Watchers. I would appreciate it though, if you failed to mention any of that to any other Watchers."

"Well...good. But what about..."

Hank was interrupted by Leila, who stood in the cabin-door. "Buffy, I need to speak with you for a minute?"

"Can it wait?"

"Not really, no."

Buffy excused herself to her father, and went down the corridor with her. Daytime was a quiet time in the sleeping wagons, and they had seen nearly no one else the entire day, and so had the privacy they needed.

"The mother came to me," said Leila. "She had a message for you."

"What message?"

"She said; "We have tried to summon the guide, but the key wont work without its master. You must bring her to us, no matter what."

The key? Its master? For a moment, Buffy didnt understand. Then she did. Dawn! The key, _the veiled one is the key! _"Oh, no!Not the key! Not Dawn!" Buffy reeled at the thought. Yet she pulled herself together "Did she say anything more?"

"Yes. A... large contigent of Slayers has been dispatched from Central to meet us."

"Good, did she say how large?"

"No"

"Ok." Buffy headed down the corridor to the cabin where Miriam was now sitting up.

"Everybody ready?" she asked.

"As ready as well get, I guess" said her father.

Glory got to her feet. "Have you made up your mind yet?" she asked Buffy.

"About what?"

"About whether youll let me near your sister. I know you dont want to."

_Well, I dont suppose one would need to be a mindreader to figure that out, _Buffy thought, surprised to find she was blushing just a bit.

"I had it made up for me. Youre coming. Whether you want to or not, actually."

"Dont worry. Ill come if you let me, and stay behind if you dont. Hows that for a deal?"

Buffy looked at her. "Doesnt matter. Youre coming." Her voice was cold, to cover up the emotional turmoil inside her.

"Ok, we should be getting ready, Dibbley is only ten minutes away. We should be looking over our weapons and be prepared for anything." said Hank from the doorway. "You allright, Buffy?"

"No." she said. She could hear the thuds of the train speeding down the rails, taking them through the dark outside towards Slayer Central, where Dawn would have to face her worst nightmare, and call it mother. "Can we make this train go slower?" she said.

For the 13 years Theo Henderson had been station manager for Dibbley Railway Station, he had never seen a scene like the one playing out before him that evening. Not the busloads of young women and teenage girls, that had happened before. Several of them he recognised, and understood that they came from the new girlsschool over at the Duchamps place. What had Theo all puzzled was that these girls marching into his station all carried weapons. Swords, axes, crossbows, all kinds of medieval armory. What kind of school were they running over there? The girls were not chatty and giggeling as they used to either. Their faces were serious and focused, their steps long and their backs straight. They marched onto his platform as if they owned it. It was a strange day to be sure. First, the strangers that had been hanging around for the last hour, and now this. He had not seen the strangers arriving, they certainly hadnt come down the road. They were just there. Three of them, just standing on the platform. He had tried to ask them if they needed any help, but the long-haired ones answer that "they just liked to watch the trains" somehow failed to be convincing. Theo recognised a dismissal when he heard it, and the cold stare the stranger gave him made him go back to his office and stay there. But the arrival of the girls made him get off his couch, and out to the platform. He approached a bespectacled man in tweed, who looked like he had to be a teacher or a headmaster or something. "Excuse me, can I offer any help?" he asked.

The man in tweed stopped. "Yes, you might. Say, have you noticed anything out of the ordinary today. Any...unusual traffic, or something?"

"Uhm... Sure..ahh..there were these guys earlier..three of them. They seemed...odd. But I dont see them anywhere now. Dont know where they went. Uhm..listen, are you going to hang around long? Theres no train stopping here for another two hours."

"Tonight there will be" said the man. He turned to a dark haired woman passing by him. "Kennedy, I suggest you have the station searched, it appears there has been strangers here and we dont want to take any chances."

The woman nodded, and started ordering others to start looking around, and suddenly there were girls searching through every part of the station. Theo was getting more nervous by the minute. Dibbley station was usually a very quiet place, the only time there were ever any people was when a train stopped for passengers or freight. That was four times a day, the rest of the time there was really very little to do. All this buzzing and searching by teenage girls with swords, made his stomach upset. He really wished they would get on their way soon. And what was that the man had said, that there would be a train stopping tonight. Ridiculous! The only train anywhere near would be the southbound express, and Dibbley was not on its stop schedule, ever. "Listen," he said. "Its not that I dont appreciate the company, or would deny you entrance to the station, but...is it really nececcary to be waving around all these weapons? There are regulations...and..." The man in tweed looked at him, then turned around towards another woman standing a few meters away. "Diana, would you make sure this gentleman here is kept safe for a time, and not suffering any memories that would upset him in the future?"

"Of course" said Diana. She lifted her hands towards Theo, and started muttering under her breath. Theo didnt understand the words, but suddenly he started feeling dizzy, and before he managed to raise his voice to call for help, everything went black. Later, when Theo woke up, he would remember nothing of that evening. Not the strangers, nor the girls, and certainly not any of what passed next on his platform.

"Get him to safety" Giles ordered a slayer near him. "We dont want any bystander casualties. Theo was quickly dragged out of sight and hidden away. Giles strode further onto the platform, towards a witch standing there with her eyes closed. "Anything?" he asked. The witch opened her eyes and turned to him. "I sense a trace of thaumaturgical discharge, left not long ago. Someone has definitely used magic here. It get a sense of teleportation, but not quite, if you see what I mean?" Giles lifted his eyebrows and shook his head questioningly. The witch took a second to continue; "What I mean, I think we are being watched, but not from this plane of existance. It seems someone is very delicately keeping a portal just barely open, ready to enter at choice."

"Oh dear. Can you close it? Cut them off, or at least delay them?"

"No, it is but a hairline fracture, I can see it, but my magical skill is not fine enough to combine with the kind of power needed to do that. And no one here with that kind of control and power has my talent of spotting magical residue."

"So, we should be expecting company?"

"Definitely."

"Ok. Collect a mixture of Slayers and Witches and create a perimeter around the fracture. The second something comes through, attack. But be careful, ok?"

"Attack carefully, yes sir. Great."

Giles walked away, ignoring the witchs sigh of exparation. "Kennedy!" He yelled, and Kennedy appeared. "Yes, Giles?"

"Have you found anything?"

"No. Nobody here exept us."

"Good. But there will be trouble once the train arrives, Marian assures me. She will deal with that. You keep your attention to Glory. She makes any trouble...well, do your worst, ok?"

"Sure, Giles." Kennedy started ordering the slayers into position, trying to keep them mobile, in case the train-car should stop somewhere they did not expect. Then they waited.

Aboard the train, Buffy was pacing the corridor frantically. A passenger trying to pass through the car had taken one look at her and then headed back where he came from. "Good on him, too" thought Buffy. It occurred to her that this car would not be a very safe place in a few minutes. In the cabin furthest away from her, she knew her father and his wife was sitting on the floor, muttering spells to reach the mind of the driver, making the train stop where they wanted it to. They were so close now, Buffy could feel the train starting to slow down. The pounding of the rails got stronger as it lost momentum, sounding for all the world like a doomsday clock counting down. Buffy went to the door of the cabin, and found that the spell was cast, things would run independently from now on. Buffy took a deep breath.

"Ok" she said "heres how we do this. There will be a welcoming party at the platform, Slayers and magicians. Chances are there will be hostiles as well. We need to get to safety, and for the time being, Gloria appears to be first priority. Be careful, if what you say is true, that we cannot have the soul mirror chained to the force shield, you will be vulnerable, like you were at the appartement. Try to get away as quickly as possible, but keep close to the witches. Leila, you and me will be protecting Miriam, dad, and mr. Zabuto, until we find slayers to take over. Getting to safety is proirity, victory isnt, is that clear?"

Everybody nodded.

"Good. Are we ready?"

More nods. Then silence, as the train kept slowing more and more. They took up positions at the door.

Then, after what seemed like eternity, the train finally stopped. Seconds as long as days ticked by before the door slid open, and Glory stepped out, followed by Buffy and Leila, swords at the ready. The platform was filled with armed girls and women, more slayers than Buffy had ever seen in one place before. She had a few seconds to take it in, and to identify Kennedy and a few other she knew, and further back on the platform, the familiar face of Giles, before there was a flash of light from the side. Then hell broke loose on Dibbley station. Standing in the middle of the circle of witches and slayers was suddenly a medium tall man with long blond hair, and intensely penetrating eyes, and a mere wave of his hands sent the entire perimeter tumbling. Behind him came vampires by the scores, spilling out of a hole in the air and going for the food with a vengeance. The ranks of slayers collapsed nearly immediately, trained for combat by twos and ones as they were, and not in military style formations. The vampires started disappearing in puffs of dust, but Buffy and her gang found themselves completely alone. No slayers could be found to escort the weakened Sekiraghi and the two watchers to safety. Only Kennedy and two others stood before them, but their attention was on Glory, watching her intently. "Will she be trouble?" shouted Kennedy over the den. "No, I dont think so" yelled Buffy back."Listen, Kennedy, you must get these three to safety. Me and Leila here will come with you." "What about her?" Kennedy asked, before she had to turn and stake a vampire that had managed to penetrate all the way to them. Then she turned back and pointed to Glory. "Willow told me she had to go to Central!"

"Yes, but she can fend for herself, for now! Where do we go!?"

"Get to the front of the station! Giles has a SUV waiting for you!"

"Ok, now form a circle, and dont let the vamps in!"

A circle of five formed around the half-demon and the two watchers, the latter two carrying swords of their own, ready to fight if need be. Not exactly the amount of protection Buffy had hoped for, but it would have to do. Around them there was a milling of people fighting for their lives, and Buffy had lost sight of the place where the portal had opened. Then they were fighting too, as several vamps broke out of the crowd to lunge at them. Glory was a few meters ahead of them, fighting without any weapons but her bare hands, throwing enemies off like they were mere nuicanses. She had protested wildly when told to leave the protection of Miriam to the slayers, but had finally agreed to go on ahead after Hank begged her to listen to Buffy. But Buffy noticed that she didnt move forwards nearly as quickly as she probably could have. But when a sudden jolt to the back of her head brought Buffy to her knees for a moment, leaving an open space between Miriam and the rest of the world, Glory was there, wrenching away the attackers with a fury and enough strenght to rip the head of one vampire clean off. Then one of the slayers that had followed Kennedy suddenly went down with a vampire ripping at her throat. At that point there was no holding her back. She lifted the vamp off the slayer, and used it as a cudgel to fend off some more that were struggling towards them. Then they were clear. But just as they started to run for the exit, there was a sound like a thud, then Buffy felt herself being knocked off her feet, and sent tumbling backwards. She could see others laying sprawled around her, as well. When she managed to look up, she realised that no one was left standing on the entire platform, exept the long-haired man, in a long black leather coat striding towards her. Suddenly Buffy gasped and looked to her left. There lay Miriam, as flat out as anybody else. Whatever this man had done, it had either not triggered the soul mirror, or he was somehow immune to it. Could he kill Miriam, just like that? He lifted his hand as he apporached. But even with Miriam lying alone and helpless on the ground, the man did not spare her a glance. He made a motion with his outstreched hand, and Glory was lifted clean off the ground by an invisible hand. The man stopped. Then he tilted his head and stroked his beard with his free hand. "Well", he said. " I guess it doesnt matter any longer, what stand you will take." That was all he said. He just smiled, and Glory started kicking the air, and Buffy could see the look of panic return to her face that she recognised from the appartment. She got to her feet and lunged towards him, but a slight wave of his hand knocked her back. Then Buffy saw Glorys body start to change. Her shoulders were broadening, her hips got slimmer, her hair started getting shorter and changing its colour. If no one could do anything within the next few seconds, Glory would be dead, and, Buffy realised, so would any chance of doing whatever Willow was trying to do. But other slayers too had tried to attack him, and been thrown back, and several spells cast at him had simply bounced off. There seemed to be nothing anybody could do to help.

Then a short, slim figure suddenly stood up next to him. No one had noticed Miriam crawling up to him, and now she was standing right before him, and she had one hand on the temple of his head. The man just looked at her with disdain for a second, and then he suddenly shook his head, and his mouth shaped itself into an "O". Then Glory fell crashing to the ground, and the man stumbled backwards, a look of panic and confusion on his face. The still-open portal snapped shut with a hiss. Buffy saw her father rush to Glorys side, and lift her limp head from the ground. "Gloria!" he shouted. For a moment Buffy thought the long-haired man had succeeded, then she saw Glorys hair starting to grow longer, and a few seconds after the fallen hellgod drew a deep, rasping breath. Miriam was still standing up in the middle of the dozens of shapes lying around, the long-haired man crawling away from her, his eyes unfocused, as if blind. But, as Glory was getting to her feet, he started to focus again, though his eyes seemed different, more normal, so to say. And furious! As he started to rise, she could see his lips move, and he raised his hands. Spells! Buffy didnt hesitate, but jumped to her feet and charged towards him. Even as he finished getting up, Buffy was launching a sideways kick to his chest, but somehow he managed to escape full impact by interrupting his spellcasting and throwing his weight backwards. Nevertheless Buffys kick threw him backwards several feet, leaving him on all fours, gasping for his breath. So, a normal, living and breathing human after all. Where had his power then come from, wondered Buffy. Possession? Perhaps, but unlikely. That didnt explain how he had escaped the effects of the soul mirror. Buffy pondered the possibilities as she backed away, back to her group. She located her sword, lying on the platform a few feet from where she had fallen, and picked it up. Around her, slayers and vampires where getting to her feet, though some slayers, she noticed, stayed put, unmoving. Tears came to her eyes, but she still kept alert for attack. Attacks came, but Buffy swung her sword, keeping them from reaching her charges. The slayers were fighting more coordinated now, she noticed. She found Kennedy with her eyes, seeing her lips move as her eyes darted around the battlefield. Talking to Willow! Buffy supposed, telling her where to order the slayers. The original plan had been flawed, and now they had resorted to new tactics on the spot. Through the fray, Buffy could see the long-haired man. He was standing up again, but doing nothing. Then he turned and walked out of Buffys sight. She turned and saw that each of her travelmates was now encircled by groups of slayers, step by step leading them towards the exit-gates. The vampire ranks had started thinning too, since the portal closing had cut off the flow. Still plenty to go around though. No need to play musical vamps tonight.

No slayers were being left behind as they prepared to retreat. Dead or alive, the downed girls were all dragged off the platform. The air was filled with dust and animal screams, as the undead fell to the slayers weapons. They fell to Buffy. _Slash, spin, chop_. She saw her father, as the last of her group, being guided through the gates to what she could only assume was safety. _Duck, lunge, turn and slash_. Buffy slayed. It was what she did. What she was. What she knew. She no longer resented it, not now that she was no longer alone.

She had cast off the weight of the world nearly a year ago, _dive, roll, kick, _and left the faith of all things living with the rest. Until now. Destiny was back, and with a giant chip on its shoulder for Buffy. _Jump, backwards flip, oops!_ "Damn it girl! With those teeth, shouldnt you vamps be more into dental hygiene?" Buffy threw the vampire that had jumped her as she fell over on her back away, and saw her disintegrate as another slayer took her head off. "Thanks, Buffy" said the slayer. "Thanks yourself, Rita. Doin good?" "Good as ever, all things considered." Rita replied. Then she had to return to the fight, which was dwindling down to a brawl, with nearly all of the vampires dusted, and most of the slayers having withdrawn. Now Buffy could see the long-haired man again, standing on the platform with his hands lifted to the sky. She started for him. This man was too dangerous to be left around. But before she could reach him, he looked directly towards her, the penetrating glow back in his eyes. Was he still vulnerable? Buffy intended to find out, but all of a sudden, he just started turning his back to her. But instead of showing her his back, he gradually faded into a two-dimensional line, and with a bright flash, he was gone. Buffy stopped, and stood gaping. She had seen lots of strangeness, but this was bucking for a prize! She started backing for the exit, still keeping her eyes on the spot where the man had vanished. As soon as she was convinced he was really gone, she turned and ran for the gates. A few straggeling vampires still hunkered around the platform, but Buffy had no time for them. She rushed through the gates, after the other slayers. Outside, in the parking lot, two large buses were standing, being filled up with slayers, many of them wounded. They would be allright, she knew. Slayers healed fast. But she also noticed a couple that would not heal, ever. Then a voice called her name. "Buffy!" She turned, and saw Giles come towards her. "Giles!" she cried, and threw herself around his neck. "Are you allright?" he asked.

"Yeah, Im fine. A few nicks and bruises here and there, but nothing worth mentioning. Did everybody get out allright? I mean...except the slayers that...didnt."

"Yes. Except them. Everybodys fine. Listen, Buffy. That man with you, the...warlock. Is that...?"

"My father, yes."

"I thought I recognised him. What does he..."

"Long story, not for now. We need to get to Central. I dont think this is over yet."

"No?"

"The man on the platform, the one I think opened the portal, he got away. And something tells me he wont give up easily."

"Im sorry, I didnt catch everything. This man, is he the one who..."

"Nearly killed Glory? Yes. And more, he didnt fall to the soul mirror. "

Giles started leading her towards the SUV he had parked a distance away. "Nothing can withstand the soul mirror, there has to be some mistake." Buffy shook her head.

"Miriam went down like all the others, but he didnt flinch. Until she did something to him. I dont know what."

"Well, we will have to deal with that later, now we need to get going."

As they approached the SUV, mr. Zabuto came out to meet them. "Mr Giles", he said.

Giles gave a short, businesslike nod. "Mr. Zabuto." A greeting between equals. They entered the car, and Giles looked back at the people in the back. "Mr Summers, nice to meet again. We were not expecting you." Then he saw Glory, and his voice got harder. "Mighty Glorificus, didnt I kill you at one time?" Glory looked up at him with a humble face. "Closest anyone ever got, until tonight, mr Giles" she said, her voice weaker than usual. "Well" said Giles. "Tonight, youre going with us, apparently. But if you try anything, we _will_ finish the job, I assure you."

" I believe you, Mr Giles. But I think you will not find it necessary."

" We will see. "

"Giles, we dont have time for this, we need to get going. Leila, tell Willow were off, but let her know I think there might be more trouble before we get there. Miriam, what was that guy back there, and what was that you did to him.?"

"There was...something about his eyes, like they didnt _see_, like others. I looked at them, and... I couldnt believe it. That man... I think he was Sekiraghi. "

"I thought you were the last." said Hank.

"So did I. And in many ways, I still do. This man, he had no prophecy in him. He stored nothing, nothing had been handed to him. But there was something, the power he wielded? Not his. He was the eyes, he pointed to the target, but someone else wielded the power. The mirror triggered, but he was left untouched because the spell did not originate with him. He was a channel, and eyes."

"For who?" By now the car was speeding down the hill heading for the estate several miles away.

"I dont know. Someone very powerful, someone that could not be touched by the mirror."

"Someone who wanted Glory dead!" said Buffy.

"Why her?" Giles asked, while keeping his eyes on the dark road.

"My guess? To destroy our chance to follow the prophecy."

"What? How?"

"We need Glory to use the key. Without the key, no guide. No Guide..? Who knows what. One thing is for sure, it will effectively kill off the prophecy. And as far as I can tell, it means killing off the world too. I have a strict policy on that, a _no_ kind of policy."

"How would they know...oh damn! I told them specifically to hold the summoning until we knew more."

"Ah. The kind of advice always taken to heart among the scoobies, right?"

Giles cast her a _look_. "Yes...silly me.."

"But Miriam, what was that you did to him? You saved Glory."

"I showed him prophecy. Gave him nothing, just showed him. It confused him, overwhelmed him. I dont think he knows what he is."

"Do you think you can do it again, if he shows up?"

"I have to touch him. I dont think he will allow me, now the element of surprise is gone."

"Figures. Just our luck. Giles, any ideas?"

"W...what? Uh..no, not really"


	5. Chapter 5

_Ok, I couldn't wait, here is chapter 5. Thanks again for reviews, keep them coming._

CHAPTER 5

The car raced out of Dibbley, speeding up a dirt road, way too fast. In the back of the car, Hank Summers held his weakened wife tight. After years of hiding, all this racing around and fighting collided with every instinct he had developed. Stealth had become his way. Discretion and living in the shadows. Shopping for food had been a dare, and a night on the town? Forget it. Calling his daughters? Nope! And now, every bet was off. It all came down to getting to this Central-place before some big meany caught up with them. And killed his wife. He looked at Giles in the front seat. A man that, Glory had told him, actually had tried to kill her. And nearly succeeded. She did not blame him, she said. No hard feelings, she said. She had it coming, she said. He did not understand. Not what she had been, what she was, not what anyone was. He knew one thing. He had felt her, every bit of her will and intent as they worked together in the do or die process of setting up the soul mirror. Her will, her love, her willingness to risk death was so singular as to leave no doubt. Hank knew beyond doubt that it was her dedication that had kept them alive through those nights, and especially in the brief split second when they made the spell take hold and spring into effect. That was when he had fallen in love. And just a little bit later it was that she had realised that she loved him. Before the spell, she had _wanted_ to die. She performed the spell as a suicide attempt. She did not intend to survive. All her thoughts, all her intent, was on herself. Then he had loved her, and she had felt it. As the spell caught, there was no thought at all about Miriam with any of them. Only for each other. Later, Hank had realised that that was the only way to cast the mirror. Any other way was death, or worse. Hank Summers knew love. He did not need to know more. He could tolerate all of his instincts yelling "Hide, hide, hide!!", yet not hide. He could fight, run, light the sky with spells if need be. He could do all that. But he could not understand.

His life was going to be different now. There would be other people. Other watchers, other magicians. Slayers. His daughters. Mr. Giles there, another watcher. He remembered Giles, faintly. He had met him on a few occations, and honestly, he had thought he was Joyces date. He guessed that the relationship Buffy and Giles had was indeed a lot closer than it would have been with some stepfather. The watcher-slayer bonds...they could go beyond father and daughter, as he had seen with Leila and Zabuto. Zabuto had warned him; " They will tell you to keep the distance, not to get close. Dont listen. I listened once, and it got my Slayer killed. Love your slayer. Let your slayer love you. The Slayer must love."

As he listened to Buffy and Giles gibbering and throwing verbal faints at each other in the front, he knew that Buffy loved. And he realised it made him happy, if a tad jealous.

"Hank?" he heard Gloria whisper in his ear.

"Yes?"

"Hank, if that man gets hold of me again, I dont think I ll make it. If Ben comes out...his brain is destroyed, he will die within a second, and me with him. If that should happen, and you survive...tell Dawn.., ask her, if she could find it in her heart...to forgive him. He wasnt bad. He just wanted to live. Everybody wants to live. He lives now, only through me, and I through him."

"You wont die Gloria. Well make it. Youve got your strenght back now, havent you?"

"Almost. But Ben has no power. If he comes, we die."

"I dont understand this. And I dont care. You will live!"

"Perhaps. But just in case. Will you promise?"

"I promise."

"Thank you. But I will not go without a fight, you know. Im no pushover." She giggled and kissed his chin. "Dont worry," said Hank. "I think weve scared them off for tonight" But even as he finished saying it, he was proven wrong as a flash of light blinded them and Giles put the brakes to full and slid to a halt by the side of the road. Buffy already had the door open and hit the ground running, her sword ready. But she didnt get close to the man before she was thrown into the ditch by the roadside by an invisible force. The man stood in there in the glaring headlights. "Please step out of the vehicle!" he shouted. No one moved. "Hand over the beast!"he yelled next." And the rest of you can go free!"

Giles leaned out of the window and yelled at him; " Take a hike, will you? No one is turning over anybody!"

The man just smiled and raised a hand. In the next moment, there was a loud _crack!, _and the car chassis started imploding. The man tilted his head. Hanks heart was racing. "_The beast._" Did he mean Gloria? By now, everyone was spilling out of the car, as it was hardly a guarantee for safety anymore. Buffy had managed to clamber from the ditch, and joined them. "Are you all right?" Hank whispered to her. "Yeah"

The man stood lit in the headlights. Hank could see him clearly for the first time. He was medium tall, with a round face made more featured by the beard that covered only the chin, and a modest mustache to round it off. His blond hair reached to well beneath his shoulders, and Hank noticed that he was older than he first had appeared. Somewhere around the mid-thirties? Now, the man spoke again. "Now, can we please stop trying to rush me? It gets very annoying after a while. As soon as the little hellgod here is dead, Ill be on your way, and you can all go on and enjoy whats left of your lives. But first, there is one thing I want to know." He took a step forward and pointed to Miriam." You! What are you? What did you do to me?"

"Come closer, maybe Ill show you"

"Oh, please, you can do better than that. Tell me, what are you!"

"You mean they didnt tell you?"

"You are the Sekiraghi. They said you were weak, frail. You must be more than they think, to cut me off like that. Now, tell me!"

"The answer to your question is not what I am, but what you are. You dont know, do you?" The man gave her a long hard stare. Meanwhile, Hank could hear Leila whisper to Buffy; "The mother says to stall him for as long as we can. She comes." What was this? How could Leila know? He knew about telepathy, but he had never seen signs of any such abilities with Leila. Another thing he did not understand. And what could Willow do, if no one else could? A powerful witch, Buffy had said, but so was Gloria, sort of. More powerful than any old witch, at any rate. She was a _god_. That had to count for _something_, hadnt it? He turned his attention back to Miriam. She was looking right at their enemy, facing him down.

"What I showed you, what you saw, what do you think that was?"

"Prophecy, of course. This is all about prophecy. Thats not what I mean. You went into my brain, confused it. But my brain is supposed to be protected from illusions and unnatural intrusion, protected by beings so powerful you couldnt begin to imagine it!"

"Nyea...thats what they all say." Buffy broke in. "If those masters of yours are so powerful, how come _they_ cant tell you?"

"They tell me what they please. They tell me what I need to know to do my work. I ask because _I_ want to know."

"Pretty important to ya, huh?"

The man smiled in an overbearing fashion. "Nothing is important, young lady. Not anymore. You will come to realise this in time. Perhaps. It doesnt matter."

"Well, I for one cant wait to find out who these masters of yours are, for you to be all confident. I really dont care if I can imagine them, as long as I can beat them, and Ive kicked some _pre-tty_ big time butt in my time."

The man wouldns stop smiling. "Well, let me assure you then, that my schwarts _is_ bigger than yours. Now, me, Im very exited to see who youre waiting for. Youre stalling, that much is obvious. The veiled one? That would be interesting. Except I just heard the veiled one is dead. Hm? No? Thought as much. That old fool went and messed things up, thinking he could create the veiled one himself, keep the veil under our control. But you would have reacted to that, wouldnt you, Sekiraghi? " He looked around. "Personally, I find this intriguing, my masters however are bored. " He focused his attention on Glory again. Buffy looked on helplessly, knowing that there was nothing any of them could do. She didnt even know if Willow would be of any help here. Glory was gasping again, her face twitching in agony, but she was obviously fighting it, it took longer this time. But in the end she would lose, and she would die. And Buffy did not even know why she should try to save her, not to mention how.

Then, barely noticeable at first, then growing stronger and more visible in the moonlight that was now casting its polarized light over them, the dirt before them started rippling in circles. Not from the center out, but inwards, towards a point a few meters from where the long-haired man stood with his hand streched out. He cast a quick glance at the ripples, but did not let go of his focus. Then the ground started rising in a swirl, which turned into a powerful dust-devil, before it coalesced into a human form. Hank Summers saw the slender shape of a woman he had only vaguely known once as a skinny girl with skitty eyes and ever-apologetic poise. The person before him possessed none of these traits. This was a grown woman, back erect, head held high, and she had the air of power. Even while she was still a little fuzzy in the edges, Hank could see her lips move, preparing a spell. As soon as her form was solid, she released. Hank saw nothing, but the long-haired man was knocked over like a leaf in the wind, thrown several meters away and lay sprawling on the ground. Glory fell to her knees, exhausted. She had fought hard, but this time it had taken nearly all of her strength out of her. Willow did not stop to look after them. She strode towards where the man was already struggling to his feet, miraculously. He had not been cut off from his source of power this time, that otherworldly glare was still in his eyes. So when Willows next spell hit him, he stood his ground. The look of surprise that had twisted his face for a moment, was gone. "Ah." he said. "Witchcraft. And a lot of it, too. Is _that_ what you were stalling for?" His cockiness was back in full. " I _told_ you I have the bigger schwarts, and as it happens, I got a few spells stored on my own" He deflected another one of Willows spells, then smiled that smile of his. Then, as Willow seemed to be about to change her tactics, he just lifted a hand and in the blink of an eye, he hit her with a fireball so hot it glowed white. Buffy felt her stomach turn into a stone, and her mind go numb as her best friend was sent flying through the air, clean off the road, to land in the shadows beyond the ditch. The flames went out almost instantly, but Buffy could see Willows shape smoldering, outlining her form. Then even the embers winked out and left only darkness. With fire that hot, she would have been turned to ashes instantly. The thought of a world without Willow was so terrifying to Buffy it filled her with a scream of despair and a wail of terror to great to be contained. She screamed, but there was no sound. She had already emptied her lungs, her muscles were strained to their full power, she had nothing more. Only dark, crushing despair and sorrow. And something else. Inside her, Buffy could feel it blossom. Fury. An anger burning so hot and fierce, driving her from her paralysis and pushing her into action. She charged at her enemy, moving as fast as her superhuman powers permitted, faster than ever. She herself, however, did not perceive the speed, to her the world was moving in slow motion. She watched from a place behind her eyes as the man turned towards her, preparing to wave her away like before. But she knew long before that he was too late. She rammed him and tore him over, taking him to the ground. Even as they hit the ground, Buffy was rolling to get to her knees, turning back, and started to pound at the man. The blows hit, with more force than Buffy had ever used before. They hit his face, his chest, his skull. He should have been pulp. Yet he wasnt. Bruised, yes. Even a tad dazed. But Buffy could see they were not doing the damage they should have. Whatever possessed him, or was channeled through him, also protected him from physical damage as long as he was connected. Mostly. The man struck back. Not with his fists, but with magic. Like before, Buffy was struck by an invisible force and thrown away from him, hitting the ground square on her back, losing what little breath she had managed to draw. Her vision darkened as she gasped for air, until she finally managed to fill her lungs again. Then, as light returned to her, she realised there was too much of it. She struggled to turn her head, and to focus. Somehow, a second moon had risen, casting its light over them. A brighter moon, with a human shape in the middle. A moon with Willows face. From the ditch were Willow had fallen, she seemed to float towards them, her hair flowing around her and her skin translucent. As Buffy lay there, she suddenly felt like a thousand great rivers were bearing down on her, thundering through every cell of her living body, and through every part of her brain and mind. She managed to turn her head just barely, to see the rest of the party sinking to their knees, unable to stand upright. Their faces was masks of pain and wonder, horror and bliss, all mixed together. She remembered to look for her enemy, and found him. His expression was a lot less ambigous. Shock and fear. Whatever he had expected, this was not it. He raised his hand and let fly another fireball, which engulfed Willow for a second, then died away without touching her. The long-haired man fled. He backed away as quickly as he could without stumbling, then turned around and was gone. For a moment there was only silence and the pale light of Willow spilling over them. Then the light started dimming, and Willow seemed to shrink, even though she had been her own size all the time. Then the light went out, and only the regular Willow was left standing in the dirt, naked, yet assertive. Then she let out a loud huff of air and spoke for the first time; "Wow, that...was special!"

"Willow!" Buffy could not keep back her shout of joy as she got to her feet. "Youre alive?!"

Willow looked at her and smiled a small shaky smile. "Seems like it. Thought Id had it there for a while, though. Hi Buffy." Buffy threw her arms around Willow, and wept. Willow hugged her back, held her for a moment, then stepped out of her reach. " Im sorry Buffy, but we must postpone your welcome back-party till later. Now we need to get you to Central. I cannot stay, but I dont think that guy will be back right yet. Be quick, though, if he does come back, I might not be able to help you. I felt the power behind him. Its big, and strong. If he hadnt been so surprised, he might have beaten me. Hurry!"

"Yes. Youve started summoning the guide?"

"Yeah, sorry Giles, got so curious I couldnt wait."

"Dont worry Willow" Buffy hurried to say. "You did right, Miriam here says it has to be tonight. If not, something terrible will happen. And might anyway."

"Oh. Id better get back then. Dawn is not happy about this." Willow looked at Glory, who was standing up again, almost gawking at her. Willows eyebrows were raised a notch as she saw Hank next to her. "Mr Summers, now that _is_ a surprise." She looked closer at him. "And powerful. Figures. How fast can you get to Central, Giles?"

"Oh...uh...about ten minutes I suppose, if I drive fast." Giles showed every sign of still being shocked by what Willow had done.

"Well, drive faster. Well be waiting. Bring her straight to the spellchamber"

"Ill do what I can, just be ready", said Giles. Willow, nodded, then closed her eyes. Her shape started blurring, turned fuzzy, then dissolved in a whirl like dirt in the wind which sank into the ground and was gone, the lone moon in the sky suddenly seeming to weak and wain for them. Buffy broke the silence." Theres a spellchamber? Whats a spellchamber? Giles?"

"A spellchamber is a room where...no. Later Buffy. Get in the car, you heard Willow."

Everybody hurried to the car, except Glory. She stood frozen to the spot, just staring at the place where Willow had vanished. "Come on!" yelled Buffy at her, yanking her shoulder. Glory shook out of her shaken reverie and followed. But still she couldt help throwing one last look back as the car sped away. "What the _hell_ was that? What _is_ she?" she asked no one in particular.

Buffy gleamed. "Told you, the most powerful witch in the world, my best friend, Willow."

"Oh no" said Glory shaking her head in denial."Travelling through the earth, throwing force bolts? Fine, good powerful witchcraft. But that shiny, quaky thing? No. Not witchcraft. And surviving that fireball? Witches burn just fine. In fact they are famous for it. Yet..."

"Maybe you just havent met anyone as powerful as her before, that ever cross your mind?" But Glory shook her head.

"It's not just about amounts of power, Buffy. Its a _quality_. Powers are different, and that simply wasn't witchcraft. "

"Uh..Giles? Any bright ideas?"

"Ah..well...I didn't really know she could do such things, but...perhaps it is an aspect of the Slayer-related power she wields in her more...motherly..functions. It shouldn't surprise me if it is fundamentally different from common witchcraft. That could explain it. But still...that fireball should have..._Bloody hell_! The car suddenly skidded wildly, and Giles snapped his attention back to the road. Their speed had gone beyond reckless, through idiotic and was pushing the line towards suicidal, which left Giles no time for chatter. The passengers were quickly loosing the chatty feeling as well, and the rest of the trip went past in near silence. Soon after, the gates of Duchamps estate opened and let them through. Racing the last few miles up to the mansion was done in less than a minute, and Giles took the car to a screeching stop shooting way past the front entrance stairway. They all got out and walked quickly to the door. Andrew was waiting at the entrance with orders to attend to the guests, while Giles was taking Glory to the spellchamber. "Take them to the safety chamber, Andrew, and keep it sealed until the summoning is done."

Hank protested. "I want to go with her. Shes my _wife_, dammit, and Dawn is my daughter. I'm a warlock, I can help with spells."

"No, mr Summers. Dawn is probably pretty stressed out already by the thought of letting Glory near her. Putting you in there without prior notice, or _with_ prior notice for that matter, is propably one distraction to many. This is hellmouth business, we cannot let it go wrong. " Hank finally conceded, and followed Giles. "What about you, Buffy? Aren't you going to do the summoning?" he asked.

"Nah. I'm not the spellcastery type of girl.

"_But give her a shellcaster, now thats a different story_!" Hank looked up to see who was talking, and saw a young man come jogging down the stairs. He had black hair, hanging down well beyond his shoulders. Black trousers, black sweater, black shoes. Also the eyepatch he wore was black. Buffy stormed at him, crying "Xander!", and hung herself around his neck. "Heey, Buffster. I've missed you. We all have."

" Some missage is good for you, Xander. What happened to you anyway? Have you been killing demons in the black no1 factory, or did someone accidentally summon the spirit of Johnny Cash to possess you?"

"Well, you know Buffy. When you are one of very few men among very many ladies, I see it as my duty too try looking my best and most dashing. "

"Of course. Are you going with us, to this...uh..safety chamber?"

"No, I will be with Willow and Dawn in the spellchamber, they will need a strong firm manly hand to ward them against peril from the ...perilous realms of...peril. "

"Ah...of course. Did you remember telling Willow and Dawn that?"

"Yes. Absolutely. And out-of -the-nose hilarity ensued. Go figure why. Got to go, Buffy, see you later. " "See ya, Xander."

Buffy looked at Andrew. "Out-of-the-nose hilarity?"

"Ah, yeah. There was Yoghurt and much unpleasantness... "

Hank saw Giles disappear with his wife, Xander following just behind.

"How is he?" Buffy asked Andrew. Andrew sighed. "Unusually good moody today, I think he is really happy to see you back. Normally, hes much gloomier, we dont really see much of him some times. Especially lately. His grief is...immense."

"Yeah. Must be harsh."

"I dont think its healthy. Its been nearly a year, but it doesnt seem like he will accept shes gone. He never says her name. Doesnt talk about her at all, really."

Buffy found nothing to say on the matter.

"So, what about this spellchamber? Whats that about?"

"Just this room Willow set up in the basement. Symbols, alignments, magical mixtures in the wall and suchlike. To enhance the magical energy. All very mystical. The safety chamber is right next door. It is protected from magic, by talismans and stuff, to disperse the energies. Prevent magical accidents."

"That's nice. Thats where we're going, right?"

"Right. Tell me, Buffy, aren't you going to introduce me to your guests?"

"Oh, right. Sorry. Andrew, this is Leila the vampire slayer, Mr Zabuto, her watcher, Miriam, last of the Sekiraghi, and this is my father, Hank Summers."

"Your father? What's your father doing here?"

"Watcher in training. Like you."

"Really? Wow...imagine. Honored mr. Summers. Are you really...her...husband?"

"Yes, Gloria and I are married. Have she tried to kill you too?"

"Ahh...no...but... Mr Giles has been kind enough to let me read his watcher diary, and her...prowess...is described in some detail there."

"Right. Are we getting to this chamber anytime soon?"

"Yes, it is right ahead here, now. Please enter."

Buffy looked around at the room they entered. "Doesn't look very magical." she said. And it really didn't. It looked like a living room, just without a TV. It had couches, a table, and lamps hanging in the ceiling. In the far end was a closed door. "That door leads to the spellchamber" said Andrew. It will not open until Willow gives word."

"Very organised. Very...Willow. So, she has remained firmly un-evil the last year, then?"

"Yes. Hasn't tried to destroy the world at all."

Mr Zabuto cleared his voice. "Ah...are you saying she used to be evil?"

"Only for a short time" Buffy searched for words to appease the doubt that had surfaced in the watcher's voice. "She was going through some stuff at the time" Not very reassuring, probably.

"She tried to destroy the world?"

"Uh..yeah...but she really regretted it afterwords."

"How close did she get"

"Oh, we probably had several minutes to go on. Xander fixed it."

"But still you trust her with your sister, and your friends? And the faith of the world?"

"We're very forgivnessy."

"Does that stretch to include Gloria?" Hank asked.

"Uhh.." Buffys mind was boiling again. She had no plans to forgive Glory anything at the moment. "...she's...special.. I ..."

"I see."

There was a heavy silence. Neither Miriam or Leila had spoken a word since they arrived, and they didn't now.

Mr Zabuto broke the silence, if not the line of inquiry."So, this forgiving, does that explain your familiarity with the vampire Angelus?"

"Yeah, sort of. Andrew, is there any way to know how it's going in there?"

"No. We'll just have to wait."

"Damn. I hate waiting."

Meanwhile, in the spellchamber, Willow and Dawn were waiting in silence. Dawn was still freaked out after seeing Willow disappear into the ground, then re-emerging stark naked minutes later. She had only looked at Dawn, and said "They will be here shortly"

Something about her had felt different then. It took Dawn a little while to realise that just looking at her was revealing nothing, the difference was in the link. The bond between them, as slayer and...mother, was somehow stronger. Dawn felt stronger near her. She found no words to describe the feeling to herself, but it was definitely there. "You've changed" Dawn said. Willow looked at her. "Something happened" she answered. Calm outwards, but Dawn knew Willow, and could see the signs of nervousness she didn't like anyone to know about. "Was...was _she_ there?" Dawn asked.

"Yes. Glory was with them. Someone tried to kill her. "

"Too bad they didn't."

"I'm not sure. I think we need her."

Dawn was scared. For the next minutes they just sat there, waiting. Dawn realised that Willow was probably right. They needed Glory, whether they liked it or not. They had tried, Willow had held her hand, she could feel the probing of Willows mind inside her own. She had felt what it was like when Willow touched her core, her..._keyness_. It was like nothing she knew. Except once. She shuddered at the memory. The tower, the fear, the touch. _Her_ touch! It had opened her. She knew it now. Buffy...Buffy had closed that window. To do it again, the touch was required. _She_ was required! Dawn felt like she was going to throw up.

The minutes dragged along like were they years. To Dawn, they could not pass slow enough. Then Willow quietly announced; "They come". Dawn froze. Then she heard steps coming down the stairs outside the chamber, and before she had time to collect herself, Giles and Xander entered. Behind them followed her own personal nemesis, the hellgod Glory.

And there they stood, in the spellchamber deep underground. They stood in silence, Willow calm and focused, Dawn with her heart thundering, she could only just keep from trying to run away. Glory, the centre of attention, stood in the middle of what had formed into a small circle, looking at the ground. Giles and Xander was at the back, waiting to see what would happen. It was Willow, in the end, who broke silence.

"Glory!" she said, her voice steady as a rock. "The prophecy calls for you to take stand. Declare now, where do you stand?!" Glory raised her head, and with a deep breath she looked Willow straight in the eyes. "I stand with you!" she said. "Whatever has gone before, we cannot let stand between us. When this is done, you can do with me what you please. Kill me, if that is your wish, I will give no fight" Eyes still on Willow, she added: "I believe you could, at that." Willow seemed to waver for a moment, then found her ground again. "Good. First tell me, can the key be released from your power? To act on its own?

"Yes. But it would take days. Miriam says this must be done now. If I die, the key remains useless to anyone."

"I can do nothing but accept your word on this. Will you help us, to unlock the gates between the worlds to allow the guide to enter?"

"I will. "

"Good. Let us begin. How?"

"First we must know which portal to open. Do we?"

"Yes. I can feel the gate, but cannot open it."

"Then you will take the girl's hand, and...I will take hers."

"What about Giles and Xander. Can they stay?"

"I don't think it will do any harm."

"Ok. Dawn, take my hand. Do like we did earlier. Try to open the gate I point to. "

Dawn was trembling all over as she took Willow's hand. She breathed deeply, then concentrated on finding that place inside her, that feeling, the _keyness_ of her. She found it. Then she felt the presence of Willow, heard her silent call, and somehow saw a mental finger point to a place that was not really anywhere in this world, yet somehow everywhere in it. She felt a resistance, then somehow she knew how to work around the resistance, how to remove it. She knew, but still couldn't. Something was missing. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Then, a slender little hand grabbed hers. A new presence. Glory was touching her, and the panic rising inside her almost made her lose touch with Willow altogether. But somehow she managed to hang on. She regained her focus, suppressed her fear. Pushed against the portal with her mind. Nothing. Then Glory's presence seemed to grow in her, to become enormous and crushing. The full and potent power of a god was streaming through her, and she realised that it was not enough to be the key. It was the power of the slayer that kept her now from being utterly destroyed by the sheer amount of power hammering at her body and mind. And yet she felt no malice. This was no more an attack on her than blowing to much air into a balloon was an attempt on the balloon. It was simply power. Then the power touched her keyness, and spoke to it. All of a sudden she could hear Willow's call, as if spoken out loud.

" Aleahenceariandies, come. Come to me." it said, over and over again. And Dawn could feel the one being summoned through the wall. The other was heeding the summon, waiting only for the gate to open and let it in. There was a sense of power, will, and...familiarity. Then the gate. She could open it. There was something new in her, and she felt...turned. The gate opened, and the full aspect of the being from the other side appeared to her. A being of light, and age. Dawn opened her eyes. The being was there, still light, but coalescing into human form. A familiar form. As the last of the glow disappeared, Dawn heard a gasp from Willow. Then she let go, the work was done. The guide stood before them, smiling and looking around. Then it spoke: "Wow, nice place you've got here, Willow." Dawn could only stutter..."You...you are...?"

"Oh dear" gasped Giles, Xander, for once, was lost for words, though his mouth was desperately trying to form some. The guide spoke again: "So, Dawn. _You_ are the veiled one? Guess I shouldn't be surprised, I heard about how you came into the world, but still. Xander, either close your mouth, or say "hi" or something." Xander finally found his voice. "I...I...ah...Willow, you really weren't kidding, were you? First friend?"

"Uhm..yeah..." started Willow. "But I, I really didn't think that was the stuff of prophecy, with the...oh shit!"

"Being as it may, Willow, our friendship goes back way before kindergarten" said Cordelia Chase, standing before them naked as the day she was born. "Or, should I call you "Erindringanizhivane"?" Willow gasped. "But...how...how can you be...?"

Cordelia smiled. "You will know, when there is time. Now, we have none. You should all prepare for battle."

Xander was still shaking his head in disbelief. "Oh." he said. "Oh my...Buffy...she's not gonna like this." As if in response to his words, the door from the safety chamber opened, and Buffy entered the spellchamber. Her eyes sprang wide open as she saw Cordelia, but rather than the scorn and anger her friends would have expected, she reacted in a way to leave her friends stunned. After a moment of shock, her eyes sprang into tears, then she suddenly ran towards Cordelia, and threw her arms around her. Buffy cried. Cordelia laid her arms around her, stroked her hair, and rocked her like a baby. The rest of Buffy's companions were walking carefully into the chamber, looking around apprehensively. Dawn could not take her eyes off her sister, locked in embrace with the last person she would have expected her to. Then something else caught her attention. Again, Dawn felt her stomach fall several inches, creating a sense of nausea. "D..dad?" Hank came towards her. "Dawn!" he exclaimed. "My little Dawn." Dawn stood back. "What...what are you doing here?" she said, carefully. "Why...?" Then they fell into silent awkwardness, like a chasm had opened between them, Dawn in hurt loneliness, Hank uncertain who his daughter was anymore, of if she had ever really been his daughter. Neither did the circumstances yield time for heart-rendering reunions, as Cordelia raised her voice. "Willow" she said. "I don't know what will be in the future, but I know where we must be now. I am the guide, I will guide you, and transport you. If there is to be a choice at all, we must all leave immediately. You will need all the slayers."

"Oh...ok. Uhm... Andrew, will you gather all the slayers still here? Find Kennedy, she just got back, she will help you. Ah.. and.."

"No, Willow. The slayers present here will not be enough. I fear we will need all of them."

"All of them? Like in..?"

"Every slayer in the world must go with us!"

"Uhm..excuse me?" Xander broke in. "Much as I hate to point it out, gathering all of them would take days, maybe weeks. I thought we were pressed for time?"

"No need to gather them here, Xander. Willow, you will call all of them, get their attention. Then, I will bring you, the rest will follow the mother. Except you, Buffy. You will have to hold my hand. We will be travelling a long distance, so I have decided that you will go through my realm to get there in time. But be sure, Willow, to tell all of the slayers to stay focused. We don't want anyone to stay behind there. Buffy, you will have to let go now. You must be ready, you more than anyone."

Buffy reluctantly let go of Cordelia, then quenched her cries. She stepped back, straightened her shoulders. But her eyes were still wet, and there was a tremble in her lower lip. "I will fetch my weapons" she managed to say. She headed towards the safety-chamber.

"Willow" said the guide. " When we are ready, I need you to call all the slayers at once. As loud as you can. Tell them to drop whatevers at their hands, and to start running, and to be ready to fight. "

"Yes...of course, but...if I call that loud, many unwilling will follow too. They are not trained, they could get killed."

"Innocents will probably die tonight, that is true. But the alternative is much worse. We _must_ succeed. If not, they all might be better off dead."

"Ok. I will call them, when you give the word."

There was a strange atmosphere in the chambers, a sense of foreboding, as they prepared to go into battle, and a big one if Cordelia was to be believed. Usually, Dawn thought, usually there was always signs and portents before something like this went down. There used to be time. Not this one. It felt like the end of the world had snuck up on them and was just about to whack them over the head when somebody yelled "_duck_". Well, they were about to duck, but was that all? Were they also about to turn and hit back in the same stroke? "_If there is to be a choice_" That was not hitting-talk. This was definetely _ducking_. The striking back would come later. Hopefully. She drew her sword from its scabbard. She looked at the long, sleek blade. Strong, sharp, wrought in ten thousand shadows. Pictograms in the metal held a spell that left the blade virtually unbreakable. Her thumb triggered a spring in the shaft, and the sword sprung a special surprise for vampires. An eight inch wooden stake made from the hardest and most durable wood in the world slid into view from the hilt. She would duck. With a vengeance. But first, she realised, she would have to be the key again. Willow was waving her over, but before she heeded, she took a look at her father. What was _he_ doing here? As usual, no one had explained anything to her. She looked at the group with him. There was the black man, a watcher if she ever saw one. There had been mention of a watcher. And the girl next to him must be the slayer. The trained unwilling. The stakes in her belt was sort of a give-away in that department. The little woman next to them had to be the prophecy vault-creature. There was Glory, standing with Cordelia, wowing that she stood with them, that she would go into battle with them. Now, from the description given them through Willow, that left...the warlock. Her father, a warlock? She couldn't believe it. When...? She had been surprised at the anger welling up in her at the sight of him. The times when she had dreamed of seeing him again. The dreams had been...nothing like what had happened. Dreams rarely were. Then she saw Buffy exiting the safety-chamber with her sword and a fresh load of stakes, and turned her attention to Willow again. She would be the key again.

In the back of the room, Xander and Andrew were watching. "I wonder" said Xander, "what kind of place could be Cordelias realm? Some sort of hell where the unpopular are sent to be tormented for eternity by the demons of fashion and snide remarks?"

"Yeah, and..and..where you spend the afterlife in the boys' bathroom being bashed by quarterbacks, and never gets to hit the shower?"

"She could have gathered all of her old friends there. Perhaps Harmony's there. She would certainly qualify for hell."

"Nah...she's in LA, working for Angel."

Xander looked at Andrew with some surprise. "Really? But I'm sure, if I ended up there, Spike would be there, and I would have to share a room with him forever.

"Nah...Spike's in LA too. Working with Angel."

"Uh..that does _not_ compute. Though...it would make for some thoughts about LA. _I_ always suspected...hey, Buffy, where are you going? Do you know?"

"Yeah," said Buffy, passing by. Her voice was rigid with tension, as she headed towards where Willow, Glory, Dawn and Cordelia was now holding hands, preparing to start whatever they were doing. We're going to heaven." she said. "And out again"


End file.
